LESSON XIX.
THE MERRY COUSINS.
You have heard about the robber cousin of the Old Man of the Meadow. Now you shall hear about a very happy and harmless little cousin. Here he is!
Did you ever meet him in your walks? Did he ever come creeping out of a hole in the wall, or from a chink in the bricks in the hearth, and sit down by you before the fire?
Did you notice how he waved his long feelers gently in the heat, and seemed to bask in the glow as pussy does? If you were very still, perhaps all at once he burst into a shrill, gay little song.
Did you notice what a shining, dark-brown coat he had? Did you see that his tail had two long, stiff hairs, or bristles, spread out from each other? Did you think that they were like the long tail hairs of the bright and dainty May-fly?[16]
When you saw all this did you know your little friend well? Did you call him by his name, “How are you, Mr. Cricket”?
Ah, the cricket is a right-jolly little fellow; let us take a good look at him.
There are three kinds of crickets which we shall talk about. The house cricket, the field cricket, the mole cricket.
The body of the cricket is not so slender as that of the grasshopper, it is short and thick. It is much the shape of the first joint of your thumb. The color is a dark, glossy brown, sometimes almost black.
The feelers are very long, longer than the whole body. The eyes are large and round. The under wings are very large, much larger than the wing-cases. When they are folded up, they reach out beyond the covers and the body, in a long needle-like roll. It looks as if Mr. Cricket were carrying home something under his arm.
Near where the wing cover joins his body, Mr. Cricket has a little, thin drum-head for his music. He is very fond of making a noise. The French call him “Cri-cri”[17]from the sound he makes. We call him “cricket” for the same reason.
The cricket has strong jaws, sharp teeth, and a thick round tongue. His feet are not broad and thick,like the grasshopper’s. He does not run up plants as the grasshopper does. The cricket runs about the ground. He has sharp, thin feet. Sometimes they have stiff hairs on them.
As he runs about the ground, his long feelers warn him of any danger in front. What do you think he has to tell him of danger behind? He has that pair of long, stiff tail hairs, which look so much like feelers.
Mrs. Cricket does not sing. It is Mr. Cricket that makes all the noise. How does he make it? He has three strong veins under his left wing cover. The largest of these is rough, like a file. This vein he uses as a man uses the bow of a violin.
When the rough vein is drawn across the right wing cover, all the cover trembles, or quivers, and gives out a sound, as when the bow is drawn over the strings of a violin.
The field cricket will sing all day. The house and mole crickets sing only at night.
Field crickets and house crickets are very much alike. The field cricket is darker than the house cricket. He is also noisy by day. In the winter he creeps into the earth and is torpid, unless the early cold kills him.
I think house crickets are field crickets that have takento living in doors. So, in course of time, they have changed a little. But they were all field crickets once.
Crickets are fond of moisture. They are thirsty creatures. They will drink any liquid left in their way. They drink water, milk, soup, tea, beer, vinegar, yeast. I have known them to come to my ink bottle to try to drink the ink! But that killed them!
Crickets eat vegetables. They like potato. They are greedy, and will eat whatever is in their way. They eat bread crumbs, soft grease, and are very fond of meat. They catch and eat small insects. They eat leather. Also they will eat woollen cloth, stockings, clothes.
Once our cook laid upon the grass a large piece of woollen blanket, on which she had spilled some bread sponge. She left it there thirty-six hours. When she went for it, the crickets had eaten nearly all of it. It was so full of holes it was like a net. There were more holes than there was blanket.
Crickets do not like to change their homes. They prefer to stay near where they were born. If you carry them away they will use their big wings to get home. Unless they fly to move from home tohome, they do not use their big wings very much. They walk, or hop.
The poets and story-tellers are very fond of crickets. Many people think it is lucky to have them sing in the hearth. But there is no luck about it. It is very pleasant and cheery to hear them sing.
In hot weather the house cricket sometimes goes into the garden to live. In October he comes in, and finds a home in the house-wall. He likes new houses where the mortar is not too hard for him to pull some of it out and make his little home. He chooses the kitchen and other well-warmed rooms to live in.
If the house is shut up and without fires for some days the cricket becomes torpid. What do you suppose these little fellows did before they found men to build houses for them?
In houses they keep quiet all day. They are timid things. Perhaps they sleep. At night they come out. One wise old man who wrote about crickets said that the tiny, new crickets came out on the hearth-stone by hundreds. They were about the size of fleas. He found all sizes at the same time. So he thought that they hatch at any time if they live in a warm place.
The field cricket makes his house in the earth. Heseeks a hot, sunny spot. Then he digs out a hole with his strong jaws. This hole is often from six to twelve inches deep.
The cricket is very timid and runs into his hole if any one comes by. But if he is not afraid, he sits in the door of his house to catch insects that come near. He also eats leaves and grass, that grow about his door.
Little French children fish for crickets by tying an ant to a thread and dropping it into the hole. You can also make Mr. Cricket come out, by poking a blade of grass into his hole. He runs up to see what is the matter.
Down in the bottom of the hole, Mrs. Cricket lays her eggs. They are fastened to each other, and to the ground by a kind of glue. She lays about three hundred eggs each year. She does not put them all in one place.
As soon as the larvæ come out of the eggs, they run up to the top of the ground. Each one then begins to dig a new burrow. Now and then they get tired of a burrow, and go off to make a new one.
The little crickets in the larva and pupa state look much like the grown ones, only they have no wings. When they are about half-grown, they hop about, and look, and act, much like tiny toads.If the crickets come out of the egg in July, they will reach the perfect state the next May.
When they are full grown, they have wings, and can play a tune. They like that. They sit in their doors and sing.
In Spain, the people like the cricket’s song so much that they keep crickets in little cages, to sing for them. If they have plenty to eat and drink, they will sing and be happy.
Each cricket will need a cage all for himself. Two crickets shut up together will fight, until one is killed. Crickets always live alone.
FOOTNOTES:[16]See Nature Reader, No. 2. “Child of an Hour.”[17]Pronouncedcree-cree.
[16]See Nature Reader, No. 2. “Child of an Hour.”
[16]See Nature Reader, No. 2. “Child of an Hour.”
[17]Pronouncedcree-cree.
[17]Pronouncedcree-cree.