82 HAUNTS AND HOBBIES 



It is too near the entrance of the main hole to serve 

 as a means of escape in case of danger. And yet what 

 other purpose it can serve I cannot imagine. 



Of all the crickets the jheengoo is the most amusing 

 to watch. When his hole is completed he sits most 

 of the day at the entrance, his head only just within it, 

 and there he sits gazing out at the sky and garden. 

 He is not the least shy or timid, and remains quite 

 undisturbed if I or the servants approach him. He 

 has a great, round face, and it always seemed to me 

 to wear an expression of such smiling good -temper 

 that in the end I got quite fond of him. Of course 

 this was only fancy on my part, for the faces of 

 insects are mere horny masks, incapable of any ex- 

 pression whatever. 



Notwithstanding, however, his amiable appearance, 

 the jheengoo is an unsociable creature, leading a solitary 

 existence. So, indeed, so far as I observed, did the 

 other varieties of his species, with the exception of 

 the small black crickets. I found that each of the 

 holes of these I opened contained quite a little com- 

 munity. 



The lukhiree, like the jheengoo, passes a good deal 

 of his time sitting at the entrance of his hole; but 

 he does not pass it in the same calm, contemplative 

 manner. He is always on the alert, and will spring 

 forward, if anything attracts him, with a suddenness 

 and to a distance quite surprising, almost startling. 

 Of this the other morning I had an example. 



I was walking along one of the garden paths, when 

 I passed a lukh^ree's hole. The lukhdree himself was 



