HEARTH CRICKET. 755 
<iiey make just by, they drop their ordure, and never in the day- 
time seem to stir above two or three inches from home. 
Sitting in the entrance all night as well as day, from the middle of 
May to the middle of July, in hot weather, when they are most 
vigorous, they make the hills echo ; and in the stiller hours of dark- 
ness, they may be heard at a considerable distance. In the beginning 
of the season, their notes are more faint and inward, but they 
become louder as the summer advances, and so die away again by 
degrees. The chirping of the field-cricket, though sharp and stridu- 
lous, yet delights some hearers, filling their minds with ideas of every 
thing that is rural and joyous. About the tenth of March the 
crickets appear at the months of their cells, which they then open, 
and shape very elegantly. All that ever 1 have seen at this 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 of my garden, by boring deep holes in the sloping turf. The 
new inhabitants staid some time, and fed and si]ng, but wandered 
away by degrees, and were heard at a farther distance every morn- 
ing; so that it appears that in this emergency they made use of 
their wings in attempting to return to the spot from whence they 
were taken. One of these crickets, when confined in a paper cage, 
set in the sun, and supplied with plants moistened with water, will 
feed and thrive, and become so merry and loud as to be trouble- 
some in the same room where a person is sitting ; if the plants are not 
Wetted, it will die. 
Domestic, or Hearth Cricket. 
This insect delights in new-built houses ; being, like the spider, 
pleased with the moisture of the walls. The softness of the mortar 
enables them to burrow and mine between the joints of the bricks or 
stone, and to open communications from one room to another. They are 
particularly fond of kitchens and bakers’ ovens, on account of their 
perpetual w'armth. “ Fender insects,” says Mr. White, that live 
abroad, either enjoy only the short period of one summer, or else 
doze away the cold uncomfortable months in profound slumbers ; but 
these, residing as it were in a torrid zone, are always alert and merry : 
a good Christmas fire is to them like the heat of the dog-days. 
Though they are frequently heard in the day, yet is their natural 
time of motion only in the night. As soon as it grows dusk, the 
chirping increases, and they come running forth, and are from the size 
of a flea to that of their full stature. As one should suppose from the 
burning atmosphere they inhabit, they are a thirsty race, and shew 
a great propensity for liquids, being found frequently drowned in 
pans of water, milk, broth, or the like. Whatever is moist, they 
affect ; and therefore often gnaw holes in wet woollen stockings a*nd 
aprons that are hung to the fire. These crickets are not only very 
