Thoreau on cicadas

On a walk near my mother’s house in Burnt Hills, New York, I heard the unmistakable drilling, shrilling sound of a cicada — often, though inaccurately, called a locust. It was July 18, the same day in 1851 that Thoreau heard his first cicada of the year. Below are a few of Thoreau’s observations of cicadas, arranged by day of the year.

July 18, 1851
I first heard the locust sing, so dry and piercing, by the side of the pine woods in the heat of the day.

July 26, 1854
I hear borne on the wind from far, mingling with the sound of the wind, the z-ing of the locust, scarcely like a distinct sound.

August 18, 1841
I sit here in the barn this flowing afternoon weather, while the school bell is ringing in the village, and find that all the things immediate to be done are very trivial. I could postpone them to hear this locust sing.

August 26, 1860
The shrilling of the alder locust is the solder that welds these autumn days together. All bushes (arbusta) resound with their song, and you wade up to your ears in it. Methinks the burden of their song is the countless harvests of the year, — berries, grain, and other fruits.

September 2, 1856
Frank Harding has caught a dog-day locust which lit on the bottom of my boat, in which he was sitting, and z-ed there. When you hear him you have got to the end of the alphabet and may imagine the &. It has a mark somewhat like a small writing w on the top of its thorax.