i86 HOUSE, GARDEN, AND FIELD 



of locomotion ; he has recourse to leaping only in an 

 emergency, and flies only when he wishes to change his 

 quarters. Gilbert White with his sharp eyes saw crickets 

 flying out of his windows, and over the roofs of the neigh- 

 bouring houses, in the dusk of summer evenings. Egg- 

 laying seems to be always going on, for crickets of all ages 

 may be caught in the same traps, and at any season of the 

 year. It is believed that the duration of life is about a 

 year, but I do not know of any careful observations on 

 the point. A popular belief, which is shared by many 

 naturalists, would lead us to suppose that crickets and 

 cockroaches cannot live together ; the cricket is said to 

 drive out the cockroach. In two houses which I have in- 

 habited both crickets and cockroaches were plentiful for 

 years together, the cochroaches greatly outnumbering the 

 crickets ; I have seen them come out of the same chinks. 

 There are some grounds therefore for saying that they 

 are pretty good friends, not that they will not eat one 

 another when the opportunity offers ; most insects with 

 biting jaws will do that, even with members of their own 

 species, but I cannot consider them irreconcilable foes. 



To any one who knows the cockroach pretty well the 

 most interesting features of the cricket will naturally be 

 the points of difference. These are (i) the structures 

 associated with the power of leaping, (2) the peculiar 

 mouth-organ, called the tongue, which is much more 

 elaborate in the cricket than in the cockroach, (3) the 

 gizzard, which, though similar in many respects in both 

 insects, shows peculiar features in the cricket, (4) the 

 organ by which the chirp of the cricket is produced, and 

 (5) the auditory organ, by which the chirp is perceived. 



Leaping in a cricket, a grasshopper, or any other insect 

 with thickened thighs, is effected in this way. The thigh, 

 leg and foot are first strongly flexed, as in a man who sits 

 on his heels. Then the powerful extensor muscles, which 

 are lodged in the thighs, contract, the limb is straightened, 

 and the body is raised, not gradually, as when we rise 



