The Crickets 



tions. The house cricket, or hearth cricket, Gryllus domesticus, 

 of Europe, is not common on this continent except in Canada, 

 but two or three species of field crickets are occasionally found in 

 houses in this country. The common black cricket, found in 



Or 



Fig. 230. Anabrus simplex. (After Riley.) 



grassy pasture lands or fields, lives in burrows under the ground, 

 issues sometimes in the day, but more usually at night to feed, 

 and takes blades of grass back into its burrow. The eggs are 

 laid in the autumn, usually in the ground, and are hatched the 

 following summer. The mole crickets live always under the 

 ground and feed upon the tender roots of forage plants, while the 

 tree crickets are, as their name suggests, arboreal in their habits. 

 The crickets are the most musical of all insects. Even the 

 male mole cricket consoles himself by fiddling, and warms the 

 heart of his mate by playing a tune which is not cheerful enough 

 for a household ditty, but, to our ears, uneducated in the orthop- 

 teran musical culture, sounds more like a lament of his sad 

 subterranean fate. It has been reduced to scale by Scudder as 

 follows : 



grtt grQ grQ grfl grQ ffrfl grU gnl gru grO 



rrggrgggifgrggnggrggrgigrggfcggirg* 



Fig. 231. Song of the mole cricket. (After Scudder.) 



The house cricket, or the cricket of the hearth, plays a more 

 cheerful tune, or, at all events, it is supposed to mean comfort 

 and a warm fireside and a steaming kettle. It is thus not the 

 music but the association of ideas which produces the pleasing 

 effect. Cowper expressed it perfectly when he wrote : 



" Sounds inharmonious in themselves and harsh, 

 Yet, heard in scenes where peace forever reigns, 

 And only there, please highly for their sake." 



The name cricket comes from this sound, and is derived 

 from the imitative French popular name, "cried, "and similai 



342 



