About the loth of March the crickets appear at 

 the mouths of their cells, which they then open and 

 bore, and shape very elegantly. They cast their 

 skins in April, which are then seen lying at the 

 mouths of their holes. 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 obliter- 

 ated, and the insects are seen no more till spring. 



Not many summers ago I endeavoured to trans- 

 plant a colony to the terrace in my garden, by bor- 

 ing deep holes in the sloping turf. The new inhab- 

 itants 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 in this emergency they made use of their wings 

 to return to the spot from which they were taken. 



One of these crickets, when confined in a paper 

 cage and set in the sun, and supplied with plants 

 moistened with water, will feed and thrive, and be- 

 come so merry and loud as to be irksome in the same 

 room where a person is sitting : if the plants are not 

 wetted it will die. 

 Selborne. 



L26 



