138 I1IMT1SH ORTHOPTKRA. 



miniature cages by bird-fanciers at the rate of a penny 

 :ij>iece. They are kept in stock by hundreds together 

 in open tea-chests, lined for the first three or four 

 inches from the top with strips of tin, and are fed 

 upon lettuces. The inhabitants like to have a " grille ' 

 in the room and make pets of them. Their song is. 

 more sonorous than that of the house-cricket, and 

 attention has been called to the fact that it becomes 

 sharper before rain. 



Xo doubt the field-cricket is a somewhat omnivorous, 

 feeder ; in captivity it may be fed on lettuce, sugar, 

 meat, etc. Burr says it chews wood, paper anything ; 

 it sometimes turns cannibal. Curtis remarks : " I have 

 been informed that in France children decoy these 

 insects from their burrows by inserting a fly attached 

 to the end of a horse-hair. ' : 



DISTRIBUTION. --G. campestris is found throughout 

 Europe except in the extreme north, and is reported 

 from Asia Minor, Algeria, and Egypt ; its favourite 

 haunts are hot and dry spots. In Switzerland it 

 reaches an altitude of 6,500 ft. 



BRITISH LOCALITIES. 



Apparently the field-cricket was once more common in 

 England than it is now. Whether this was the case or not, 

 everything points to the fact that at the present day it is 

 very rare and local. Stephens recorded it from Windsor, 

 New Forest/* Devon, and Cornwall, but there seems to be no 

 further confirmation of its presence now in any of these 

 localities. Records I am able to give are : 



ENGLAND. Hants ; Common at Selborne in White's time 

 (1789). In 1904 C. W. Dale told me that he had four speci- 

 mens taken by his brother at Christchurch in 1885. These 

 are no doubt four of the eight examples in the " Dale Collec- 

 tion ' now in Oxford. In 1901 I received from Major R. B. 

 Robertson a nymph taken at Pokesdown, probably the previous 

 year. Norfolk : Reported by J. Edwards. Staffordshire : 

 Rare, but caught in North Staffordshire (R. Garner's ' History 

 of the County of Stafford/ 1844 ; fide Rev. F. Jourdain). 



* There is a male in the Hope Collection in Oxford, labelled " Weaver, 

 N. F.," which may be a New Forest specimen. 



