Field-Cricket. 267 



deep, but just under a little heap of fresh mould, and within 

 the influence of the sun's heat.* The dull tarnished white 

 colour, however, scarcely agrees with a parcel of these eggs 

 now before us, which are translucent, gelatinous, and 

 greenish. 



Like the eggs and young of other insects, however, those 

 of the mole-cricket are exposed to depredation, and par- 

 ticularly to the ravages of a black beetle which burrows in 

 similar localities. The mother insect, accordingly, does not 

 think her nest secure till she has defended it, like a fortified 

 town, with labyrinths, intrenchments, ramparts, and covert 

 ways. In some part of these outworks she stations herself 

 as an advanced guard, and when the beetle ventures within 

 her circumvallations, she pounces upon him and kills him. 



THE FIELD-CRICKET. 



Another insect of this family, the field-cricket (Acheta 

 campestris), also forms burrows in the ground, in which it 

 lodges all day, and comes out chiefly about sunset to pipe its 

 evening song. It is so very shy and cautious, however, 

 that it is by no means easy to discover either the insect or 

 its burrow. " The children in France amuse themselves 

 with hunting after the field-cricket ; they put into its hole 

 an ant fastened by a long hair, and as they draw it out the 

 cricket does not fail to pursue it, and issue from its retreat. 

 Pliny informs us it might be captured in a much more 

 expeditious and easy manner. If, for instance, a small and 

 slender piece of stick were to be thrust into the burrow, the 

 insect, he says, would immediately get upon it for the pur- 

 pose of demanding the occasion of the intrusion: whence 

 arose the proverb, stultior grillo (more foolish than a cricket), 

 applied to one who, upon light grounds, provokes his enemy, 

 and falls into the snares which might have been laid to 

 entrap him."f 



The Eev. Mr. White, who attentively studied their habits 



* Natural History of Selborne, ii. 82. 



f Entomologie, par R. A. E. 18mo., Paris, 1826, p. 168. 



