stebbins] CRICKETS FOR STUDY IN THE SCHOOLROOM 253 



Ontario are to be erected during the coming year — at Hamilton, 

 Stratford, Peterboro and North Bay. More attention is to be given 

 in these new Normal Schools to the preparation of teachers for rural 

 schools. Nature-study will receive increased emphasis. 



CRICKETS FOR STUDY IN THE SCHOOLROOM 



BY FANNIE A. STEBBINS 

 Supervisor of Nature -Study, Public Schools, Springfield, Mass. 



I have written the following from notes given me by the teacher 

 of one of our second-grade classes in which crickets were more inter- 

 esting than any other thing studied last year. Teacher and pupils 

 were alike eager and enthusiastic, always ready to tell what their pets 

 had done. About the middle of September, twenty crickets, males and 

 females, were brought to the schoolroom. A battery-jar, which had 

 been cracked and so was of no further use as an aquarium, was fitted 

 up for their home. This particular jar was about 12 by 1 1 by 9 

 inches, with flat sides and ends. Turf and soil to the depth of three 

 or four inches were placed in the jar, the crickets were introduced 

 and some mosquito-netting tied over the top to prevent their escape. 

 The grass served as a partial supply of food, and the crickets also 

 concealed themselves in it sometimes. 



Feeding tests were made by the children, who supplied bread, 

 cake, fruits, sugar, etc. In fact almost everything the children used 

 as food themselves was offered to the crickets and the kinds eaten 

 were noted. Soon after coming to the schoolroom the females began 

 depositing their eggs, a process which the pupils watched, seeing 

 through the glass the pushing of the ovipositor into the soil, or rather 

 between the glass and soil, and the extrusion of eggs. Sometimes 

 one only would be deposited in one hole, sometimes several. Of 

 course some of the eggs were dug up and examined so that the pupils 

 could surely recognize them when seen elsewhere. The eggs were 

 usually deposited rather late in the afternoon, many times beginning 

 about four o'clock. The jar was kept in the sunlight as much as 

 possible and the males sang cheerily most of the time. 



Those who have kept crickets in confinement have noticed their 

 tendency to devour their comrades. These were no exception to the 

 rule, although this was mostly done at night. By the last of Octo- 

 ber all the crickets were dead. As the grass had all been eaten and 



