164 THE ACHETINA. 



De Geer saw a dead specimen of one of the species 

 (Decticus verrucivorus} eaten up by his late com- 

 panions, and Mr. Westwood mentions that a great 

 green grasshopper, left in a box for the night with 

 one of his own hind legs which had been accidentally 

 broken off, was found in the morning to have 

 devoured about half of the detached limb. The 

 Decticus verrucivorus above mentioned has received 

 its specific name (which signifies "wart-eater") from 

 its being employed by the peasants in Sweden, and 

 some other parts of Europe, to bite the warts on their 

 fingers with its powerful jaws. Like the grasshoppers 

 in general, it emits a brownish acrid fluid from the 

 mouth, and it is supposed that this, accompanying the 

 bite, will certainly cure the offending excrescences. 



If the song of the grasshopper be regarded with 

 favour by many from its association in their minds 

 with rural sights and sounds, with the fields and green 

 lanes glowing under the brilliant summer's sun, there 

 are not wanting those to whom the chirping of the 

 Cricket is also a pleasing sound, a cheerful homely 

 music, speaking to them of the long evenings of that 

 season when the domestic hearth becomes a reality. 

 Nevertheless the efforts of this little domestic musi- 

 cian do not find an equally favourable reception with 

 everybody, and superstition, with its usual ingenuity 

 in converting insignificant circumstances into sources 

 of terror, has invested even the chirping of the Cricket 

 with an evil signification. 



The common Cricket (Acheta domestica) is too 

 well known to need particular description. It is 

 found, especially during the colder months of the 



