214 The Natural History 



the day-time, seem to stir more than two or three inches 

 from home. Sitting in the entrance of their caverns they 

 chirp all night as well as day from the middle of the 

 month of May to the middle of July ; and in hot weather, 

 when they are most vigorous, they make the hills echo ; 

 and, in the stiller hours of darkness, may be heard to a 

 considerable distance. In the beginning of the season, 

 their notes are more faint and inward ; but become 

 louder as the summer advances, and so die away again 

 by degrees. 



Sounds do not always give us pleasure according to 

 their sweetness and melody ; nor do harsh sounds always 

 displease. We are more apt to be captivated or dis- 

 gusted with the associations which they promote, than 

 with the notes themselves. Thus the shrilling of the 

 field-cricket, though sharp and stridulous, yet marvellously 

 delights some hearers, filling their minds with a train of 

 summer ideas of everything that is rural, verdurous, and 

 joyous. 



About the tenth of March the crickets appear at the 

 mouths of their cells, which they then open and bore, 

 and shape very elegantly. All that ever I have seen at 

 that season were in their pupa state, and had only the 

 rudiments of wings, lying under a skin or coat, which 

 must be cast before the insect can arrive at its perfect 

 state ; ^ from whence I should suppose that the old ones 

 of last year do not always survive the winter. In August 

 their holes begin to be obliterated, and the insects are 

 seen no more till spring. 



Not many summers ago I endeavoured to transplant a 

 colony to the terrace in my garden, by boring deep holes 

 in the sloping turf. The new inhabitants stayed some 

 time, and fed and sung ; but wandered away by degrees, 

 and were heard at a farther distance every morning ; so 

 that it appears that on this emergency they made use of 

 their wings in attempting to return to the spot from 

 which they were taken. 



One of these crickets, when confined in a paper cage 



^ We have observed that they cast these skins in April, which are 

 then seen lying at the mouths of their holes. < 



