CRICKETS. 61 



to my surprise found that two of the lumps were 

 little *egg-room' caverns, each with about 200 eggs 

 in it. The eggs were brown and rounded. In 

 one nest were two tiny baby crickets. One was 

 just emerging from the egg and was quite white 

 Under the log were also crickets in all stages of 

 development, and there were two adults. I was 

 fortunate enough to see one of the crickets emerg- 

 ing. On bringing the eggs into the house, I saw 

 one of the eggs move and watched the process with 

 the aid of a broad lens. The egg skin was slit 

 along the back and the tiny creature moved its 

 head and thorax up and down, at each rising, getting 

 further out of the egg. The head and thorax came 

 first and later the abdomen, and the two tail pieces 

 or cerci came last, and in this last effort it rolled the 

 egg and itself right over. 



But the legs and mouth parts seemed to be 

 connected with a fine piece of skin. For a time 

 the tiny creature moved about like a boy on a cross- 

 bar, bending its body right back, and then swinging 

 forward. It would roll itself and the egg shell 



right over from side to side whilst making these 

 swinging movements. The eyes shone like two 

 pearls when seen in the light. 



At last one leg was free, and I then aided it 

 by gently separating the other legs with a needle, 

 for probably the exit was made more difficult 

 because the earth pellet to which the egg was 

 attached had broken away from the wall of the egg- 

 chamber." 



But the crickets after passing through the delicate 



