Avignon did not bring much variety to his quest. I find
these eggs not only on the mulberry-tree, but on the peach, the cherry,
the willow, the Japanese privet, and other trees. But these are
exceptions; what the Cigale really prefers is a slender twig of a
thickness varying from that of a straw to that of a pencil. It should
have a thin woody layer and plenty of pith. If these conditions are
fulfilled the species matters little. I should pass in review all the
semi-ligneous plants of the country were I to catalogue the various
supports which are utilised by the gravid female.

Its chosen twig never lies along the ground; it is always in a more or
less vertical position. It is usually growing in its natural position,
but is sometimes detached; in the latter case it will by chance have
fallen so that it retains its upright position. The insect prefers a
long, smooth, regular twig which can receive the whole of its eggs. The
best batches of eggs which I have found have been laid upon twigs of
the _Spartium junceum_, which are like straws stuffed with pith, and
especially on the upper twigs of the _Asphodelus cerasiferus_, which
rises nearly a yard from the ground before ramifying.

It is essential that the support, no matter what its nature, should be
dead and perfectly dry.

The first operation performed by the Cigale consists in making a series
of slight lacerations, such as one might make with the point of a pin,
which, if plunged obliquely downwards into the twig, would tear the
woody fibres and would compress them so as to form a slight
protuberance.

If the twig is irregular in shape, or if several Cigales have been
working successively at the same point, the distribution of the
punctures is confused; the eye wanders, incapable of recognising the
order of their succession or the work of the individual. One
characteristic is always present, namely, the oblique direction of the
woody fragment which is raised by the perforation, showing that the
Cigale always works in an upright position and plunges its rostrum
downwards in the direction of the twig.

If the twig is regular, smooth, and conveniently long the perforations
are almost equidistant and lie very nearly in a straight line. Their
number varies; it is small when the mother, disturbed in her operations,
has flown away to continue her work elsewhere; but they number thirty or
forty, more or less, when they contain the whole of her eggs.

Each one of the p