74 NATURAL HISTORY 



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 de- 

 lights some hearers, filling their minds with 

 a train of Summer ideas of every thing 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 



* We have observed that they cast these skins in 

 Airily which are then seen lying at the mouths of their 

 holes. 



