222 NATURAL HISTORY OF SELBORNE. 



of the season their notes are more faint and inward ; but become 

 louder as the summer advances, and so die away again by de- 

 grees. 



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 every thing that is rural, ver- 

 durous, and joyous. 



About the tenth 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 further 

 distance every morning ; so that it appears that on this emer- 

 gency 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 irksome 

 in the same room where a person is sitting : if the plants are not 

 wetted it will die. 



LETTER XLVII. To THE HON. DAINES HARRINGTON. 



DEAR SIR, Selborne. 



" Far from all resort of mirth 

 Save the cricket on the hearth." MILTON'S // Fenserono. 



WHILE many other insects must be sought after in fields and 



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

 mouths of their holes. 



