280 THE FIELD CRICKET. 



fiercely, as Mr. White found by some that he put 

 into the crevices of a dry stone-wall, where he 

 wished to have them settle. For though they 

 seemed distressed by being taken out of their know- 

 ledge, yet the first that got possession of the chinks 

 seized on all that were obtruded upon them, with a 

 vast row of serrated fangs. With their strong jaws, 

 toothed like the shears of a lobster's claws, they 

 perforate and round their curious regular cells, hav- 

 ing no fore claws to dig with, like the mole cricket. 

 When taken into the hand, they never attempt to 

 defend themselves, though armed with such formid- 

 able weapons. Of such herbs as grow about the 

 mouths of their burrows, they eat indiscriminately y 

 and never in the day-time seem to stir more than 

 two or three inches from home. Sitting in the en- 

 trance of their caverns, they chirp all night as well 

 as day, from the middle of the month of May to the 

 middle of July. In hot weather, when they are 

 most vigorous, they make the hills echo 5 and, in the 

 more still hours of darkness, may be heard to a very 

 considerable distance. 



" Not many summers ago (says Mr. White) I 

 endeavoured to transplant a colony of these insects 

 to the terrace in my garden, by boring deep holes 

 in the sloping turf. The new inhabitants staid 

 some time, and fed and sang ; but they wandered 

 away by degrees, and were heard at a greater dis- 

 tance every morning: so it appears that on this 

 emergency they made use of their wings in attempt- 

 ing to return to the spot from which they were 

 taken. 



