43 o The Natural History of Selborne 



hearth swarms with the young crickets and young IHattte molendinarite 

 of all sizes, from the most minute growth to their full proportions. 

 They seem to live in a friendly manner together, and not to prey 

 the one on the other. 



August, 1792. After the destruction of many thousands of Blatt<e 

 molendinari*, we find that at intervals a fresh detachment of old ones 

 arrives, and particularly during this hot season ; for the windows 

 being left open in the evenings, the males come flying in at the 

 casements from the neighbouring houses, which swarm with them. 

 How the females, that seem to have no perfect wings that they can 

 use, can contrive to get from house to house does not so readily 

 appear. These, like many insects, when they find their present abodes 

 overstocked, have powers of migrating to fresh quarters. Since the 

 Blatte have been so much kept under, the crickets have greatly 

 increased in number. WHITE. 



GRYLLUS DOMESTICUS. HOUSE CRICKET. 



NOVEMBER. After the servants are gone to bed the kitchen hearth 

 swarms with minute crickets not so large as fleas, which must 

 have been lately hatched. So that these domestic insects, cherished 

 by the influence of a constant large fire, regard not the season of 

 the year, but produce their young at a time when their congeners 

 are either dead or laid up for the winter, to pass away the uncom- 

 fortable months in the profoundest slumbers, and a state of 

 torpidity. 



When house-crickets are out and running about in a room in 

 the night, if surprised by a candle, they give two or three shrill notes, 

 as it were for a signal to their fellows, that they may escape to their 

 crannies and lurking-holes, to avoid danger. WHITE. 



