THE CRICKET 121 



To me, as a naturalist, the important point in the two 

 fables is the burrow on which the moral is founded. Florian 

 speaks of the snug retreat ; the other praises his lowly home. 

 It is the dwelling, therefore, that above all compels attention, 

 even that of the poet, who as a rule cares little for realities. 



In this matter, indeed, the Cricket is extraordinary. Of 

 all our insects he is the only one who, when full-grown, possesses 

 a fixed home, the reward of his own industry. During the 

 bad season of the year, most of the others burrow or skulk 

 in some temporary refuge, a refuge obtained free of cost and 

 abandoned without regret. Several of them create marvels 

 with a view to settling their family : cotton satchels, baskets 

 made of leaves, towers of cement. Some live permanently 

 in ambush, lying in wait for their prey. The Tiger-beetle, 

 for instance, digs himself a perpendicular hole, which he 

 stops up with his flat, bronze head. If any other insect 

 steps on this deceptive trap-door, it immediately tips up, and 

 the unhappy wayfarer disappears into the gulf. The Ant- 

 lion makes a slanting funnel in the sand. Its victim, the 

 Ant, slides down the slant and is then stoned, from the bottom 

 of the funnel, by the hunter, who turns his neck into a cata- 

 pult. But these are all temporary refuges or traps. 



The laboriously constructed home, in which the insect 

 settles down with no intention of moving, either in the happy 

 spring or in the woeful winter season ; the real manor-house, 

 built for peace and comfort, and not as a hunting-box or a 

 nursery this is known to the Cricket alone. On some 

 sunny, grassy slope he is the owner of a hermitage. While 

 all the others lead vagabond lives, sleeping in the open air 

 or under the casual shelter of a dead leaf or a stone, or the 

 peeling bark of an old tree, he is a privileged person with a 

 permanent address. 



The making of a home is a serious problem. It has been 

 solved by the Cricket, by the Rabbit, and lastly by man. In 

 my neighbourhood the Fox and the Badger have holes, which 

 are largely formed by the irregularities of the rock. A few 



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