THE HOUSE-CRICKET 



The field-cricket is larger and much darker than the 

 house-cricket. The black head of the field-cricket is enough 

 by itself to distinguish it, for in the house- cricket the 

 head shows yellow bands on a brown ground. The field- 

 cricket burrows in the 

 earth, and there makes 

 a retreat sufficient for 

 its own protection and 

 for the protection of the 

 eggs. Gilbert White's 

 pleasant sketch of the 

 habits of the field-cricket, 

 given in the 86th letter 

 of the Natural History 

 of Selborne, will suffice 

 for an insect which few 

 readers will have met 

 with, since it is restricted 

 to the southern counties 

 of England. 



The house- cricket finds 

 rather than makes its 

 shelter. Chinks where 

 the mortar of the wall has 

 crumbled away, when en- 

 larged a little by gnaw- 

 ing, are its refuge by day. FlG - 38. -Male house-cricket The 



. , antennae, which are longer than the 



In the evening, when body, are cut short. 

 all is still, it comes forth 



to feed upon the crumbs and vegetable refuse of the 

 kitchen. It seems hardly possible for house-crickets to 

 be too warm ; they are even less tolerant of cold than 

 cockroaches, and keep as near as possible to .the kitchen- 

 hearth. Only in the height of summer do they venture 

 out of doors. If surprised by a low temperature, as when 

 the kitchen fire is not lit for several days in winter, they 

 become torpid. Running is the cricket's ordinary mode 



