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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 stridu- 

 lous, yet marvellously delights some hearers, filling their minds 

 with a train of summer ideas of everything that is rural, ver- 

 durous, and joyous. 



About the loth March the crickets appear at the mouths of 

 their cells, which they then open and bore, and shape very ele- 

 gantly. 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 endeavored to transplant a colony 

 to the terrace in my garden, by boring deep holes in the slop- 

 ing 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 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 irk- 

 some in the same room where a person is sitting ; if the plants 

 are not wet it will die. 



