6 
BUEEETIN iot. 
How many eggs a female may lay was not accurately deter¬ 
mined, but in one female I counted 133 eggs in different stages of 
development. The eggs are not all deposited at one time, neither 
do the eggs seem to develop in sets or broods, for in a single female 
would be found ova that were very small, and all gradations be¬ 
tween these and those that were fully grown and ready to be de¬ 
posited. On July 27, I counted the eggs in the ovaries of a number 
of females that were carrying about the sperm masses and found 
the immature eggs to range between the numbers 34 and 46, and 
the mature eggs to range between 10 and 35. 
The Chirping, or squeaking, which is done entirely by the 
males, has two objects—to attract the females, and to serve as a 
note of warning. Early in the morning one standing quietly 
among the crickets, will hear the constant chirping of the males, 
but in the middle of the day or in the evening all will be quite, as a 
rule, until a step is taken or a motion is made, when the chirping 
will suddenly begin, and all the crickets within a radius of 20 feet 
or more will begin hopping or running away as if frightened. When 
traveling without being frightened, they always walk. When 
night comes on they climb into the bushes in great numbers and re¬ 
main until morning. They are very shy, however, and will drop 
from the bushes and weeds on the approach of a moving object. 
Their food is quite varied, but they have their preferences.. 
They were seen eating the leaves of sage brush (Artemisia tri- 
dentata), but they seemed to prefer more succulent food, either 
weeds or cultivated plants. Oats, rye, wheat, alfalfa, potatoes and 
most garden vegetables were eaten greedily by them, but I was told 
that peas and timothy were hardly eaten at all. They are very 
cannibalistic; in fact, they seem to prefer a struggling, dying com¬ 
panion to anything else that can'be given them as food. Mr. Miles 
told me that he killed a rattlesnake near a swarm of the crickets 
and a day after, he was passing the place and noticed the cleaned 
skeleton of the snake, which the crickets had completely stripped of 
all its flesh. After dining upon mountain trout with Mr. and Mrs. 
Miles and family, I asked Mrs. Miles if I might have the bones, 
many of which carried considerable meat, to feed to the crickets. 
She gave her consent, and the hoppers ate of the fish with apparent 
relish. They are also very fond of fresh horse manure and often 
eat cattle dung. Mr. J. H. Yoast said they ate greedily of corn 
meal which he gave them. An insect with such food habits is not 
likely to die very soon of starvation. 
the; young crickets. 
On December 4, Mr. J. H. Yoast of Dunkley, collected and 
sent me a large quantity of the eggs of the cricket, and on the day 
following, Mr. W. W. Miles of Eddy, collected and sent a lot. As 
