112 NORTH AMERICAN INSECTS. 



and the pleasing reminiscences of love and of home which 

 its chirping arouses, recently so touchingly portrayed in 

 that admirable little tale of Charles Dickens, entitled " The 

 Cricket on the Hearth," has thrown a charm around its 

 life and history perhaps never before so graphically real- 

 ized. In fact, Dickens has embodied the superstitious ven- 

 eration of this little insect, common among the country 

 people of many nations, when he makes his heroine say, 

 " It's sure to bring us good fortune, John ! It always has 

 been so. To have a cricket on the hearth is the luckiest 

 thing in the world." And Cowper did the same, years 

 before, when he sung : 



" Little inmate, full of mirth, 

 Chirping on my kitchen hearth, 

 "Wheresoe'er be thine abode, 

 Always harbinger of good, 

 Pay me for thy warm retreat 

 With a song more soft and sweet." 



There are several species of Crickets, some of which are 

 found in every part of the world, but all resembling each 

 other in their distinguishing characteristics. They are of 

 different sizes and colors, according to their different spe- 

 cies, but all have parchment-like wing-covers, and produce 

 the sound peculiar to them by rubbing the sharp margins 

 of their wing-covers together. Of all insects they are per- 

 haps the most indefatigable musicians, some of them thus 

 fiddling with their wings from daybreak until sundown, 

 and others from evening until the rising of the sun. 



There are some Crickets which dwell only upon trees and 

 bushes, and never come to the ground; these are, on this 

 account, called Tree-crickets. Others live only on the 

 ground, and are known by the name of Field-crickets. 

 Others still live in the walls of houses, and are called 

 House-crickets. 



The TREE-CRICKET, also called CLIMBING-CRICKET (Ache- 



