son of the year, but produce their young at a time 

 when their congeners are either dead or laid up for 

 the winter, passing away the uncomfortable months 

 in a state of torpidity. 



When house-crickets are out and running about 

 a room in the night, if surprised by a candle, they 

 utter two or three shrill notes, as if it were a signal 

 to their fellows, that they may escape to their cran- 

 nies and lurking-places to avoid danger.] 



In families, at such times, they are, like Pharaoh's 

 plague of frogs, — in their bedchambers, and upon 

 their beds, and in their ovens, and in their kneading- 

 troughs."^ Their shrilling noise is occasioned by a 

 brisk attrition of their wings. Cats catch hearth- 

 crickets, and play with them as they do with mice, 

 and then devour them. Crickets may be destroyed, 

 like wasps, by phials half filled with beer, or any 

 other liquid, and set in their haunts; for, being 

 always eager to drink, they will crowd in till the 

 bottles are full. 

 Selborne. 



* Exod. viii. 3. 



130 



