ORTHOPTERA. 119 



The passages formed by the Mole Cricket are not suffi- 

 ciently wide to allow of the insect's turning within them. 

 This is compensated by the power of moving backwards 

 and forwards with equal ease, and still more remarkably 

 by the exceeding sensitiveness of the bristles at the end 

 of its body, which act like antennae, to inform the insect 

 of danger approaching from behind. 



Crickets generally have more or less the habit of 

 burrowing, none, however, approaching the Mole 

 Cricket in power, or in architectural skill. The 

 Field Cricket, using its sharp, strong jaws as an 

 instrument, digs a refuge for itself in dry soil, some- 

 times to the depth of a foot ; while the House 

 Cricket excavates passages through the mortar of 

 stone or brick walls. 



As might be expected of an insect so domesticated 

 as the Cricket, and so harmless, many superstitions have 

 clustered round it ; and if, among the sun-loving Greeks, 

 the Grasshopper was hailed as a friend by gods and 

 men, in our colder clime the Cricket is counted as a 

 fireside companion ; and dire are the consequences of 

 murdering one little songster, or of the desertion of our 

 hearth by their numbers. It seems, however, that their 

 music is not at all times, or in all places, equally 

 welcome, as the " Spectator" speaks of the voice of a 

 Cricket as striking more terror to the heart than the 

 roaring of a lion. Probably the roaring of the lion was 

 softened by distance. 



The tone of the Field Cricket's song is observed to 

 vary according to the state of the atmosphere ; and 

 among the signs of the weather collected by Dr. Darwin, 

 is the sharpness of its sound before rain. This is pro- 

 to be accounted for by the action of the damp 



