280 NATURAL HISTORY 
skin or coat, which must be cast before the insect 
can arrive at its perfect state,* from whence I 
should suppose that the old ones of last year do 
not always survive the winter. In August their 
holes begin to be obliterated, and the insects are 
seen no more till spring. 
Not many summers ago I endeavoured to trans- 
plant a colony to the terrace in my garden, by bo- 
ring deep holes in the sloping turf. The new in- 
habitants stayed some time, and fed and sung ; but 
wandered away by degrees, and were heard at a 
farther distance every morning; so that it appears 
that on this emergency they made use of their 
wings in attempting to return to the spot from 
which they were taken. . 
One of these crickets, when confined in a paper 
cage and set in the sun, and supplied with plants 
moistened with water, will feed and thrive, and 
become so merry and loud as to be irksome in the 
same room where a person is sitting: if the plants 
are not wetted, it will die. 
LETTER XLIII. 
Selborne. 
Dear Sir,— 
“ Far from all resort of mirth 
Save the cricket on the hearth.” 
Mitton’s I] Penseroso. 
WHILE many other insects must be sought after 
in fields, and wood, and waters, the gryllus domes- 
* We have observed that they cast these skins in April, which 
are then seen lying at the mouths of their holes. 
