ledge, yet the firft that got poffeffion of the chinks-would feize
on any that were obtruded upon them with a vaft row of ferrated
fangs. With their ftrong jaws, toothed like the (hears of a lobfter’s
claws, they perforate and round their curious 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 them-
felves, though armed with fuch formidable weapons. Of fuch herbs
as grow before the mouths of their burrows they eat indifcrimi-
nately ; and on a little platform, which they make juft by, they
drop their dung ; and never, in the day time, feem to ftir 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 mod vigorous, they make the hills echo ; and, in the
(tiller hours of darknefs, may be heard to a confiderable diftance.
In the beginning of the feafon their notes; are more faint and inward
; but become louder as the fummer advances, and fo die
away again by degrees. :
Sounds do not always give us pleafure according to their fweet-
nefs and-melody; nor do harlh founds always difpleafe. Wears
more apt to be captivated or difgufted with the aflociations which
they promote, than with the notes themfelves. Thus the (hrilling
of the field-cricket, though (harp and ftridulous, yet marvelloufly
delights fome hearers, filling their minds with a train of fummer
ideas of every thing that is rural, verdurous, and joyous.
About the tenth of March the crickets-appear at the mouths o f
their cells, which they then open and bore, and (hape very elegantly.
All that ever I have feen at that feàfon were in their pupa
date, and had only the rudiments of wings, lying under a (kin .or
Coat, which muft be caft before the infect can arrive at it s perfect
datey; from whence I (hould fuppofe that the old ones of laft
year do not always furvive the winter. In Augujl their holes begin
to be obliterated, and the infedts are feen no more till fpring.
Not many fummers ago I endeavoured to tranfplant a colony
to the terrace in my garden, by boring deep holes in the doping
turf. The new inhabitants flayed fome time, and fed and fung »
but wandered away by degrees, and were heard at a farther diftance
every morning; fo that it appears that on this emergency
they made ufe of their wings in attempting to return to the fpot
from which they were taken.
One of thefe crickets, when confined in a paper cage and (et
in the fun, and fupplied with plants moiftened with water, will
feed and thrive, and become fo merry and loud as to be irkfome
in the fame room where a perfon is fitting : if the plants are not
wetted it will die*
y We have obferved that they caft thefe fkins in April, which are then feen lying at the
mouths of their holes.