THE YOUNG NATURALIST. 



posits her eggs in some suitable nook or corner, where they remain for sixteen 

 days before the young crickets emerge, and then they are so minute that they 

 seem scarcely able to shift for themselves, after about eight hours they become 

 very active and voracious, and seek food, eagerly devouring anything that is 

 moist with great avidity, and seemingly nothing comes amiss to them, old 

 boots or shoes, clothing, blankets, meats, vegetables, soups, broths, the 

 skimmings of pots, yeast, saccarine, in fact anything that comes in their way, 

 and so voracious are they that they eat one another when other food fails. 

 I remember when a boy catching fifteen large specimens of these creatures 

 and placing them in a glass-topped case to watch their habits. I fed them 

 some days with various foods, but falling ill myself I forgot them until my 

 sister reminded me of my cruelty, when I requested her to bring the case to 

 my bedside, but to my astonishment there were only three crickets in the 

 case, I asked my sister if she had let them out, and her answer was " I should 

 not like to have done so for I hate the creatures so much." Wondering in 

 my mind the cause of the disappearance, by not finding the dead bodies, I 

 resolved to watch them very minutely. I fed the three for some days on 

 bread and milk, then deprived them of all food, their nature being so vora- 

 cious 1 was not long in solving my problem, for I had the satisfaction of 

 witnessing the full-grown male devour the female and the undeveloped male 

 in the space of three hours. Wondering if the creature would eat any more 

 of its family, I asked my father to catch me a few more, but being unable to 

 do so he caught me four cockroaches of various sizes, two males and two 

 females, I placed them in the case with the cannibal cricket (for such I 

 christened him) and watched eagerly for the attack upon them. The cannibal 

 was evidently not hungry, as he did not attempt to devour them that evening, 

 the following evening my cannibal attacked one of the cockroaches, and after 

 a fierce combat killed him and then coolly commenced to eat him without any 

 hesitation. Owing to a relapse in my illness, I did not again see the case 

 until the lapse of five days, which I found contained the cricket and one 

 cockroach. I then released the cockroach and kept my prisoner for some 

 days, feeding him upon various articles. 



Its Life-history. — Ten days after the young cricket emerges it changes 

 its skin, then about fourteen days after that it has its second moult, which 

 seems to be a more painful operation than its first moult, after completing its 

 second change it remains about a month before undergoing any further change, 

 then the embryo cricket begins to show its individuality by the female grow- 

 ing its ovipositor. The third change now takes place, and ten days later the 

 fourth, after which the organs of male and female rapidly develope. About 

 a month later the final change takes place, and then the wings of both sexes 



