INSECT SPKKCH. 1 29 



general law of the animal world that life's span is five times 

 the period of growth. Imagine a cicada 85 years of age. 



Fitting climax, surely, to its long walk in darkness may 

 be this apostrophe of the sensual Anacreon : — 



Happy creature, what below 

 Can live more happily than thou? 

 Seated on thy leafy throne, 

 (Summer weaves thy verdant crown, )• 

 Sipping o'er the pearly lawn 

 The fragrant nectar of the dawn, 

 I^ittle tales thou lovest to sing, 

 Tales of mirth — an infant king. 



Crickets are par excelle?ice the musicians among insects. 

 Fabled in song and story, their cheery monodies have been 

 the theme of writers since distant times. The blind Milton 

 chose for his reveries the spot where crickets were wont to 

 linger, 



"Where glowing embers through the room 



Teach light to counterfeit a gloom, 



I-^ar from all resort of mirth. 



Save the cricket on the hearth." — II Penseroso. 



Not the least among the writings of Charles Dickens, that 

 master mind that laid bare the heart and thought of man, is 

 " The Cricket on the Hearth." The rather strident cry of the 

 house cricket brings to memory visions of the old fashioned 

 fireplace, the cosy chimney corner, the flickering glare from 

 hickory logs. Around such scenes as these, familiar enough 

 in pioneer days, have the destinies of nations been builded. 



Other species shun the busy haunts of man. The mole 

 cricket spends his life mainly within burrows dug by his 

 mole-like fore legs, and is seldom seen. Toward autumn the 

 male essays to sing, and his effort has been reduced to cold 

 t)^pe, u being long, as follows : — 



Oru, gru, gru, gru, gru, gru, gru, 



ad lib. This is the i-efrain of the so-called " Fall cricket." 



