166 THE ACHETINA. 



When the fragments are small enough^ individual 

 crickets often endeavour to appropriate them to their 

 own exclusive benefit, and amusing contests some- 

 times ensue, when two of them have set their hearts 

 upon the same piece of bread, and tug at it manfully 

 in different directions. They often carry pieces off 

 into their burrows, and the strength which they 

 display in effecting this object is astonishing; they 

 will take a bit of bread as large as, and certainly 

 hea\der than themselves in their jaws, and drag it up 

 the wall several inches, progressing with their heads 

 downwards. Even the young larvae, when scarcely 

 more than a twelfth of an inch in length, may be 

 seen running off loaded mth a crumb, which appears 

 to be a good deal bigger than themselves. At night 

 they often fly rapidly about the room that they 

 frequent ; their flight is short and whirling, and they 

 settle suddenly, and with a certain amount of force, 

 upon the table or the persons of those who are sitting 

 in the room. 



When the house is perfectly quiet, and the fires 

 out, we often hear the crickets particularly vociferous 

 in the kitchen, and if we take that opportunity to go 

 down stairs softly, and throw the light cautiously 

 upon the fireplace, we shall probably catch a sight of 

 the little musician without alarming him sufficiently 

 to stop his song. He will then be seen clinging to 

 the wall of the chimney, with his elytra considerably 

 raised, and in rapid vibration, for the chirping of 

 these insects, like that of those of the preceding tribe, 

 is produced by the friction of the prominent veins of 

 one of the wing-cases over the other. In this respect, 

 therefore, as also in the length and slenderness of the 

 antennae, the tribe of Crickets, Achetina, of which, 



