THE SEVENTEEN-YEAR CICADA. 
213 
Miss Morris says in forty-two days, and other persons say in 
fourteen days. 
The young insect when it hursts the shell is one sixteenth 
of an inch long, and is of a yellowish-white color, except the 
eyes and the claws of the fore legs, which are reddish ; and 
it is covered with little hairs. In form it is somewhat grab- 
like, being longer in proportion than the parent insect, and is 
furnished with six legs, the first pair of which are very large, 
shaped almost like lobster-claws, and armed with strong 
spines beneath. On the shoulders are little prominences in 
the place of wings ; and under the breast is a long beak for 
suction. These little creatures when liberated from the shell 
are very lively, and their movements are nearly as quick as 
those of ants. After a few moments their instincts prompt 
them to get to the ground, but in order to reach it they do 
not descend the body of the tree, neither do they cast off 
themselves precipitately ; but, running to the side of the limb, 
they deliberately loosen their hold, and fall to the earth. It 
seems, then, that they are not borne to the ground in the 
egg state by the limbs in which their nests are contained, but 
spontaneously make the perilous descent, immediately after 
they are hatched, without any clew, like that of the canker- 
worm, to carry them in safety through the air and break 
the force of their fall. The instinct which impels them 
thus fearlessly to precipitate themselves from the trees, from 
heights of which they can have formed no conception, with- 
out any ■experience or knowledge of the result of their adven- 
turous leap, is still more remarkable 'than that which carries 
the gosling to the water as soon as it is hatched. In those 
actions that are the result of foresight, of memory, or of 
experience, animals are controlled by their own reason, as 
in those to which they are led by the use of their ordinary 
senses, or by the indulgence of their common appetites, they 
may be said to be governed by the laws of their organization ; 
but in such as arise from special and extraordinary instincts, 
we see the most striking proofs of that creative wisdom 
