

114 



CRICKET. 



In my rides to Recife through the Merueira 

 wood I always heard the hoarse croaking of the 

 sapo cururu (rana ventricosa), and also of the 

 sapo boi or ox-toad, both of which made a most 

 disagreeable and dismal noise ; they were par- 

 ticularly active on the rainy night which I have 

 above described. The constant noise which the 

 crickets make as soon as the sun sets, fails not 

 to annoy those persons who have recently 

 arrived in the country ; and I recollect that on 

 the first evening which I spent in the country 

 043 my arrival at Pernambuco, I stopped several 

 times when conversing, as if waiting to let the 

 noise cease before I proceeded ; but this wore 

 off (as it does with every one), and latterly I 

 did not hear the noise even when it was spoken 

 of in my presence. However, if one of them 

 gets into a house, there is no resting until it be 

 dislodged, owing to the shrillness of its whistle. 

 The body of the insect is about one inch or one 

 inch and a half in length, and the legs are 

 long ; the whole of the insect is green. There 

 is another species which is distinguished by the 

 name of gryllo branco, or the white cricket ; it 

 ^tas likewise a sharp whistle ; may not this be 

 the same insect as the former, in a different 

 state ? There is likewise the gryllo defeijam or 

 bean cricket, which is so called from the de- 

 struction which it makes in the plantations of 



