244 THE NATURAL HISTORY 



their sweetness and melody ; nor do harsh sounds always 

 displease. We are more apt to be captivated or dis- 

 gusted with the associations which they promote, than 

 with the notes themselves. Thus the shrilling of the 

 field-cricket, though sharp and stridulous, yet marvellously 

 delights some hearers, filling their minds with a train of 

 summer ideas of everything that is rural, verdurous, and 

 joyous. 



About the tenth of March the crickets appear at the 

 mouths of their cells, which they then open and bore, 

 and shape very elegantly. 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 obliterated, and the insects are 

 seen no more till spring. 



Not many summers ago I endeavoured to transplant a 

 colony to the terrace in my garden, by boring deep holes 

 in the sloping turf. Th^ new inhabitants 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 on this emergency they made use of 

 their wings in attempting 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 become 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. 



* We have observed that they cast these skins in Aprii, which 

 are then seen lying at the mouths of their holes. 



