There is a steep abrupt pasture field and interspersed with furze close
to the back of this village, well known by the name of Short Lithe,
consisting of a rocky dry soil, and inclining to the afternoon sun. This
spot abounds with the _gryllus campestris_, or field-cricket; which,
though frequent in these parts, is by no means a common insect in many
other counties.
As their cheerful summer cry cannot but draw the attention of a
naturalist, I have often gone down to examine the economy of these
_grylli_, and study their mode of life; but they are so shy and cautious
that it is no easy matter to get a sight of them; for feeling a person's
footsteps as he advances, they stop short in the midst of their song, and
retire backward nimbly into their burrows, where they lurk till all
suspicion of danger is over.
At first we attempted to dig them out with a spade, but without any great
success; for either we could not get to the bottom of the hole, which
often terminated under a great stone; or else in breaking up the ground
we inadvertently squeezed the poor insect to death. Out of one so
bruised we took a multitude of eggs, which were long and narrow, of a
yellow colour, and covered with a very tough skin. By this accident we
learned to distinguish the male from the female; the former of which is
shining black, with a golden stripe across his shoulders; the latter is
more dusky, more capacious about the abdomen, and carries a long sword-
shaped weapon at her tail, which probably is the instrument with which
she deposits her eggs in crannies and safe receptacles.
Where violent methods will not avail, more gentle means will often
succeed, and so it proved in the present case; for, though a spade be too
boisterous and rough an implement, a pliant stalk of grass, gently
insinuated into the caverns, will probe their windings to the bottom, and
quickly bring out the inhabitant; and thus the humane inquirer may
gratify his curiosity without injuring the object of it. It is
remarkable, that though these insects are furnished with long legs
behind, and brawny thighs for leaping, like grasshoppers; yet when driven
from their holes they show no activity, but crawl along in a shiftless
manner, so as easily to be taken; and again, though provided with a
curious apparatus of wings, yet they never exert them when there seems to
be the greatest occasion. The males only make that shrilling noise,
perhaps, out of rivalry and emulation, as is the case with many animals
which exert some sprightly note during their breeding-time. It is raised
by a brisk friction of one wing against the other. They are solitary
beings, living singly male and female, each as it may happen; but there
must be a time when the sexes have some intercourse, and then the wings
may be useful perhaps during the hours of night. When the males meet
they will fight fiercely, as I found by some which I put into the
crevices of a dry stone wall, where I should have been glad to have made
them settle. For though they seemed distressed by being taken out of
their knowledge, yet the first that got possession of the chinks would
seize on any other that were intruded upon them with a vast row of
serrated fangs. With their strong jaws, toothed like the shears of a
lobster'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 themselves, though
armed with such formidable weapons. Of such herbs as grow before the
mouths of their burrows they eat indiscriminately, and on a little
platform which they make just by, they drop their dung; 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 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.