Crickets. 



173 



migrating to a house that offers 

 greater accommodation than the one 

 it has left. \Vc have known indi- 

 vidual crickets to seek to start a 

 colony in a house that was unoccupied 

 by its kind, but after a day or two to 

 depart again, probably because the 

 builder had not made proper pro- 

 vision for tliem in the kitchen. It likes 

 a house where, because it is to be 

 hidden bv the installation of the 

 " range," the bricklayer has not been 

 too particular to finish off the brick- 

 work of the kitchen fireplace, and has 

 left numerous chinks unfilled by 

 mortar, where the warmth-loving 

 cricket can find cosy lodgment. Or 

 a new house where the new mortar 

 may be easih' tunnelled. In such 

 secure quarters it remains quietly all 

 day, and at evening emerges into the 

 room and feeds upon such scraps of 

 food as it can find. As one might 

 expect in a creature that spends much 

 of its life in close proximity to a 

 kitchen fire, the cricket suffers from 

 thirst, and one of its principal 

 searches at night is for the means of 

 allaving it. It is sometimes found dr 

 To different persons the song of 

 the crickets — both of the house and 

 the field — is variously considered a 

 pleasure and a nerve-racking inflic- 

 tion. Many of those who would rather 

 be without the music would yet take 

 no stej)s to dislodge tlu> musician, 

 from a belief that its presence in a 

 house is an omen of good, which 

 might be diverted b\' the jjcrsccution 

 of the crickets. 



The de\'eloi)nu'nlal history of 

 the cricket follows the same line as 

 that of the grassh()j)pers. Tlic hind- 

 body of the female ends in a long, 

 slender tube b\- means of which she 



Photo by] [^- -y'l'ii, F.E.S. 



The Field-Cricket as Cage-Bird. 



Ill the Iberian Peninsula, as well as in some Eastern countries, the field- 

 cricket is confined in cages — usually on account of its " singing 

 powers," but sometimes to be handy for a fighting content. U is the- 

 males that are kept for both purposes, 



owned in the milk-jug or in vessels of water. 



Photo by] [H. Main, F.E.S^ 



The Field-Cricket. 



Though in general it niav be said to resemble the domestic cricket, 

 the field-cricket is of much stouter build and black in colour. Fabre- 

 has made a comparison between the nuisical performances of this, 

 cricket and the crested lark— to the advantage of the fonner. 



