be
captivated or disgusted with the associations 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 10th 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.

Not many summers ago I endeavoured to transplant a colony to the terrace
in my garden, by boring deep holes in the sloping turf. The new
inhabitants stayed some time, and fed and sung, but wandered away by
degrees, and were heard at a farther distance every morning, so that it
appears that on this emergency they made use of their wings in attempting
to return to the spot from which they were taken.

One of these crickets, when confined in a paper cage and set in the sun,
and supplied with plants moistened with water, will feed and thrive, and
become so merry and loud as to be irksome in the same room where a person
is sitting; if the plants are not wetted it will die.

LETTER XLVII.

"Far from all resort of mirth
Save the cricket on the hearth."

MILTON'S _Il Penseroso_.

SELBORNE.

Dear Sir,--While many other insects must be sought after in fields, and
woods, and waters, the _gryllus domesticus_, or house-cricket, resides
altogether within our dwellings, intruding itself upon our notice whether
we will or no. This species delights in new-built houses, being, like
the spider, pleased with the moisture of the walls; and besides, the
softness of the mortar enables them to burrow and mine between the joints
of the bricks or stones, and to open communications from one room to
another. They are particularly fond of kitchens and bakers' ovens, on
account of their perpetual warmth.

Tender insects 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,