The Field Cricket (_Gryllus campestris_, Fig. 304) lives alone in a hole which it digs in the ground, and in which it remains during the day. It only quits its retreat at night, when it goes in search of food. It is very timid, and at the least noise ceases its song. If it is stationed on the side of its hole, it retreats into it the moment any one approaches. The holes of the crickets are well known to country children, who take these insects by presenting a straw to them. The pugnacious cricket seizes it directly with its mandibles, and lets itself be drawn out of its hole. It is this which has given rise to the saying, "_plus sot qu'un grillon_" (a greater fool than a cricket). It is very susceptible of cold, and always makes the opening of its hole towards the south. It lives on herbs, perhaps also on insects. The House Cricket is about half an inch long, of an ashy colour, and is to be met with principally in bakers' shops and country kitchens, where it hides itself during the day in the crevices of the walls or at the back of the fireplaces. It eats flour, and also, perhaps, the little insects which live in flour. If crickets are put into a box together, they devour each other. This does not prove conclusively that they are carnivorous, for there are many species, eating nothing but vegetables, which would destroy each other in a similar case. Some authors say that these insects are always thirsty, for they are often to be found drowned in the vessels containing any kind of liquid. Everything damp is to their taste. It is for this reason that they sometimes make holes in wet clothes, which are hung up before the fire to dry. They inhabit, by preference, houses newly built; for the mortar, being still damp, allows them to hollow out their dwelling-places with greater ease. [Illustration: Fig. 304.--Field Cricket (_Gryllus campestris_).] The habits of the House Cricket (_Gryllus domesticus_) are nocturnal, like those of its congener of the fields. It is only at night that it leaves its retreat to seek its food. When it is exposed against its will to the light of day, it appears to be in a state of torpor. This insect reminds one of the owl, among birds, not only from its habit of avoiding the light, but also from its monotonous song, which the vulgar consider, one does not know why, a foreboding of ill-luck to the house in which it is heard. Formerly this singular prejudice was much deeper rooted than it is at present The song of the cricket has merely the object of calling the female. The Wood Cricket (_Gryllus_ [_Nemobius_] _sylvestris_) is much smaller than the above, and is met with in great numbers in the woods, where its leaps sometimes produce the noise of drops of rain. [Illustration: Fig. 305.--Mole Cricket (_Gryllo-talpa vulgaris_).]