226 INSECTS 



ciently catholic in their tastes to exist for some time on 

 such scraps as they can find indoors and so the cheerful 

 chirp is not infrequently heard in some country locali- 

 ties. But there are other species, with other habits. 

 In sandy districts and often along the coast where 

 crickets are very abundant outdoors, they are apt to 

 get into houses in their general wanderings and develop 

 an inordinate fondness for woollen goods, especially if 

 the}' are at all damp. It has been my fortune to accom- 

 pany a fisherman on an early spring trip to the club- 

 house at the seashore, after it had been closed since the 

 preceding fall, and I watched him open the drawers of a 

 bureau containing his store of clothing, and then I 

 listened to his expression of regard for the crickets 

 that had found the garments so toothsome; and I 

 grinned in no holy joy, for that same fisherman had 

 always regarded insects as unworthy of consideration, 

 and knowledge concerning them as of no account what- 

 ever. And lo, now he was forced to appeal to that 

 knowledge and ask advice! It was all very easy and 

 meant simply have everything perfectly dry when put 

 away, and have things put into a trunk or chest rather 

 than a drawer. Where crickets do get annoying, pieces 

 of soft bread dusted with Paris green or white arsenic 

 will soon rid the house of them. 



As for roaches, there are a few that have been dis- 

 tributed by commerce throughout the civilized world 

 and, in addition, some localities have species of their 

 own which, while living chiefly outdoors, rather com- 

 monly get indoors as well. In the tropics roaches are 

 most numerous, and in the warmer parts of our own 

 country even the common species are more abundant 

 and troublesome than they are further north. 



All roaches have much the same appearance and 

 general habits. They are flattened, soft-bodied with 



