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 taken to 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.