244 INSECTS AT H(~)ME. 



domestic relative. Tlie sexes rather differ in colour, the male 

 being- black with a yellow patch vu tlie base of the elytra, and 

 the female darkish-brown. As is the case with many other 

 insects, especially of this order, the colours change rapidly 

 after death. 



This insect lives in the open air, residing, in deep burrows^ 

 which it digs in banks wlie^e the soil is loose and moderately 

 dry. The holes are tolerably deep, and carefully avoid a straight 

 line, so that the inhabitant cannot be seen Avhile lying at the 

 extremity of the burrow. It is no easy task to get the Field 

 Cricket out of its burrow by force, for the burrow is deep, 

 and the soil niostly so loose that when the spade is introduced 

 into the ground, the earth all falls together, and the Cricket 

 is lost. A much siu-er way of obtaining it is to push a long 

 and flexible grass-stem into the hole, for tlie Field Cricket is a 

 very irascible being, and is sure to seize the intruding object 

 so firmly in its strong jaws that it can be drawn out of its 

 hole before it quits its hold. In France children catch it by 

 tying a Qy to the end of a horsehair, by way of bait, and then 

 pusliing the iiy toAvards the Cricket, by which it is at once 

 seized. The fly, however, is quite needless, as the bare horse- 

 hair would answer just as well, the Cricket beingv actuated not 

 by hunger but by anger. 



As far as is known, the Field Cricket is a solitary being, the 

 individuals of each sex living separately in their own burrow, 

 and only meeting at night. During the daytime, although 

 the insects will sit and sing at the mouths of their timnels, 

 they will not use their wings, nor even exert their powerful 

 legs, except for slow crawling. This is a very wary insect, 

 taking alarm at the approach of a footstep, and retreating 

 at once into its burrow ; so that although the place be one of 

 those localities which the Field Cricket is pleased to favour 

 with its presence, it is seldom seen though continually heard. 



It has already been mentioned that the insect is a quarrel- 

 some one. Gilbert White, who has written a charming account 

 of it in his ' Selborne,' remarks that when he caught a number 

 of Field Crickets, and tried to stock an old stone Avail Avith 

 them, the first comers took umbrage at the introduction of new 

 settlers, and invariably attacked them Avith their poAverful 

 jaws. He found also, that to transplant a colony of these 



