THE NATURAL HISTORY OF SELBORNE. 209 
regular cells, having no fore-claws to dig, like the mole-cricket. 
When taken in hand I could not but wonder that they never 
offered to defend themselves, though armed with such formida- 
ble weapons. Of such herbs as grow before the mouths of 
their burrows they eat indiscriminately ; and never, in the day- 
time, seem to stir more than two or three inches from home. 
Sitting in the entrance of their caverns they chirp all night as 
well as day from the middle of the month of May to the middle 
of July ; and in hot weather, when they are most vigorous, they 
make the hills echo, and in the stiller hours of darkness may 
be heard to a considerable distance. In the beginning of the 
season their notes are more faint and inward; but become 
louder as the summer advances, and so die away again by 
degrees. 
Sounds do not always give .us pleasure according to their 
sweetness and melody ; nor do harsh sounds always displease. 
We are more apt to be captivated or disgusted with the asso- 
ciations which they promote than with the notes themselves. 
Thus the shrilling of the field-cricket, though sharp and 
stridulous, yet marvellously delights some hearers, filling their 
minds with a train of summer ideas of everything that is rural, 
verdurous, and joyous. 
About the roth 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. 
1 We have observed that they cast their skins in April, which are then 
seen lying at the mouths of their holes. — W. 
