242 



THE NATURAL HISTORY 



[LETT. 



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 displease. 

 We are more apt to be captivated or disgusted with the asso- 

 ciations which they promote, than with the notes themselves. 

 Thus the shrilling of the field-cricket, though sharp and stri- 

 dulous, yet marvellously delights some hearers, filling their 

 minds with a train of summer ideas of everything that is rural, 

 verdurous, and joyous. 



About the 10th of March the crickets appear at the mouths 

 of their cells, which they then open and bore, and shape very 

 elegantly. They cast their skins in April, which are then seen 

 lying at the mouths of their holes. 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 obliterated, 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 in this 

 emergency they made use of their wings to return to the spot 

 from which they were taken. 



