214 THE NATURAL HISTORY 



wonder that they never offered to defend themselves, 

 though armed with such formidable weapons. Of such 

 herbs as grow before the mouths of their burrows they eat 

 indiscriminately ; and on a little platform, which they make 

 just by, they drop their dung ; and never, in the day time, 

 seem to stir more than two or three inches from home. 

 Sitting in the entrance of their caverns they chirp all night 

 as well as day from the middle of the month of May to 

 the middle of July ; and in hot weather, when they are 

 most vigorous, they make the hills echo ; and, in the stiller 

 hours of darkness, may be heard to a considerable distance. 

 In the beginning of the season their notes are more faint 

 and inward ; but become louder as the summer advances, 

 and so die away again by degrees. 



Sounds do not always give us pleasure according to their 

 sweetness and melody ; nor do harsh sounds always dis- 

 please. We are more apt to be captivated or disgusted 

 with the associations which they promote, than with the 

 notes themselves. Thus the shrilling of the field-cricket, 

 though sharp and stridulous, yet marvellously delights some 

 hearers, filling their minds with a train of summer ideas of 

 every thing that is rural, verdurous, and joyous. 



About the tenth of March the crickets appear at the 

 mouths of their cells, which they then open and bore, and 

 shape very elegantly. All that ever I have seen at that 

 season were in their pupa state, and had only the rudiments 

 of wings, lying under a 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 ob- 

 literated, and the insects are seen no more till spring. 



Not many summers ago I endeavoured to transplant a 

 colony to the terrace in my garden, by boring deep holes in 

 the sloping turf. The new inhabitants 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 



^ We have observed that they cast these skins in April, which are then 

 seen lying at the mouths of their holes. 



