The Natural History of Selborne 325 



hand I could not but 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 indis- 

 criminately, 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 sweet- 

 ness and melody ; nor do harsh sounds always displease. 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 everything that is rural, verdurous, and joyous. 



About the loth 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 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 on this emergency they 



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

 lying at the mouths of their holes. 



