MORE ABOUT CRICKETS.

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We keep crickets in a box, and find them very interesting. They are very active, and occupy themselves in laying eggs, digging holes, eating, singing, and running. Only the males sing, and their wings are very rough, and curiously marked.

Crickets have four different kinds of wings,—yellow, brown, black, and brownish-red. Those that have yellow wings seem to be less hardy than the others. They do not sing so well, but lay and eat more.

The brown-winged crickets are quite common, but not so common as the black-winged, which are the most common of all kinds. Brownish-red crickets are very rare. Those that are black with yellow spots where the wings come out, sing the best.

The eggs are yellow, about an eighth of an inch long, and of an oval shape.

When we were in Lynn, a very handsome yellow-winged singer came into the box, and ate three crickets. We put him in another box with his mate, which he brought with him. In the same box were a large female, and a common sized white-winged cricket, both of which he ate.

Crickets

Afterwards we found in his place a black-winged singer, somewhat smaller than the yellow-winged one was; but his mate remained the same as before.

Some spiders make holes in the ground, and, when the crickets go into them, the spiders eat them.

The male crickets fight with each other, singing all the while; and the one that beats sings on, all the louder.

There is another kind of cricket that is a great deal smaller, and sings much longer, in an undertone. Its wings are always yellow or brown; but we do not know much about crickets of this kind, except that their habits are similar to those of the large ones, and that they are very numerous.

Herbert and Ella Lyman.
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