294 THE INSECT WORLD. 
search of food. It is very timid, and at the least noise ceases its 
song. If it is stationed on the side of its hole, it retreats into it 
the moment any one approaches. 
The holes of the crickets are well known to country children, 
who take these insects by presenting a straw to them. The 
pugnacious cricket seizes it directly with its mandibles, and 
lets itself be drawn out of its hole. It is this which has given 
rise to the saying, “plus sot qgu’un grillon” (a greater fool than a 
cricket). It is very susceptible of cold, and always makes the 
opening of its hole towards the south. It lives on herbs, perhaps 
also on insects. 
The House Cricket is about half an inch long, of an ashy colour, 
and is to be met with principally in bakers’ shops and country 
kitchens, where it hides itself during the day in the crevices of the 
walls or at the back of the fireplaces. It eats flour, and also, 
perhaps, the little insects which live in flour. 
If crickets are put into a box together, they devour each 
other. This does not prove conclusively that they are carnivorous, 
for there are many species, eating nothing but vegetables, which 
would destroy each other in a similar case. Some authors say 
that these insects are always thirsty, for they are often to be found 
drowned in the vessels containing any kind of liquid. Everything 
damp is to their taste. It is for this reason that they sometimes 
make holes in wet clothes, which are hung up before the fire to 
dry. ‘They inhabit, by preference, houses newly built; for the 
mortar, being still damp, allows them to hollow out their dwelling: 
places with greater ease. 
The habits of the House Cricket (Grylls domesticus) are noc- 
turnal, like those of its congener of the fields. It is only at night 
that it leaves its retreat to seek its food. When it is exposed 
against its will to the light of day, it appears to be in a state of 
torpor. This insect reminds one of the owl, among birds, not 
only from its habit of avoiding the light, but also from its mono- 
tonous song, which the vulgar consider, one does not know why, a 
foreboding of ill-luck to the house in which it is heard. Formerly 
this singular prejudice was much deeper rooted than it is at 
present. The song of the cricket has merely the object of calling 
the female. The Wood Cricket (Gryllus (Nemobius) sylvestris) is 
