FIELD-CRICKET. 245 



so very shy and cautious, however, that it is by no 

 means easy to discover either the insect or its burrow. 

 " The children in France amuse themselves with 

 hunting after the field-cricket ; they put into its hole 

 an ant fastened by a long hair, and as they draw it 

 out the cricket does not fail to pursue it, and issue 

 from its retreat. Pliny informs us it might be cap- 

 tured in a much more expeditious and easy manner. 

 If, for instance, a small and slender piece of stick 

 were to be thrust into the burrow, the insect, he says, 

 would immediately get upon it for the purpose of 

 demanding the occasion of the intrusion : whence 

 arose the proverb stultior grillo (more foolish than a 

 cricket), applied to one who, upon light grounds, 

 provokes his enemy, and falls into the snares which 

 might have been laid to entrap him."* 



The Rev. Mr. White, who attentively studied 

 their habits and manners, at first made an attempt to 

 dig them out with a spade, but without any great 

 success ; for either the bottom of the hole was inac- 

 cessible, from its terminating under a large stone, or 

 else, in breaking up the ground, the poor creature 

 was inadvertently squeezed to death. Out of one 

 thus bruised, a great number of eggs was taken, 

 which were long and narrow, of a yeilow colour, and 

 covered with a very tough skin. More gentle means 

 were then used, and these proved successful. A pliant 

 stalk of grass, gently insinuated into the caverns, will 

 probe their windings to the bottom, and bring out 

 the inhabitant ; and thus the humane inquirer may 

 gratify his curiosity without injuring the object of it. 



When the males meet, they sdmetimes fight very 

 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 knowledge, yet the first 



* Entomologie, par R. A. E. 18mo., Palis, 1826, p, 168, 



p3 



