irst here,
then there, all over the area at her disposal. Her behaviour was
precisely the same as that of the Decticus, except that her movements
were more deliberate. At the end of twenty-four hours her eggs were
apparently all laid. For greater certainty I waited a couple of days
longer.

I then examined the earth in the pot. The eggs, of a straw-yellow, are
cylindrical in form, with rounded ends, and measure about one-tenth of
an inch in length. They are placed singly in the soil, in a
perpendicular position.

I have found them over the whole area of the pot, at a depth of a
twelfth of an inch. As closely as the difficulties of the operation will
allow, I have estimated the eggs of a single female, upon passing the
earth through a sieve, at five or six hundred. Such a family will
certainly undergo an energetic pruning before very long.

The egg of the Cricket is a curiosity, a tiny mechanical marvel. After
hatching it appears as a sheath of opaque white, open at the summit,
where there is a round and very regular aperture, to the edge of which
adheres a little valve like a skull-cap which forms the lid. Instead of
breaking at random under the thrusts or the cuts of the new-formed
larva, it opens of itself along a line of least resistance which occurs
expressly for the purpose. The curious process of the actual hatching
should be observed.

A fortnight after the egg is laid two large eye-marks, round and of a
reddish black, are seen to darken the forward extremity of the egg.
Next, a little above these two points, and right at the end of the
cylinder, a tiny circular capsule or swelling is seen. This marks the
line of rupture, which is now preparing. Presently the translucency of
the egg allows us to observe the fine segmentation of the tiny inmate.
Now is the moment to redouble our vigilance and to multiply our visits,
especially during the earlier part of the day.

Fortune favours the patient, and rewards my assiduity Round the little
capsule changes of infinite delicacy have prepared the line of least
resistance. The end of the egg, pushed by the head of the inmate,
becomes detached, rises, and falls aside like the top of a tiny phial.
The Cricket issues like a Jack-in-the-box.

When the Cricket has departed the shell remains distended, smooth,
intact, of the purest white, with the circular lid hanging to the mouth
of the door of exit. The egg of the bird breaks clumsily under the blows
of a wart-like excre