Homes in the Animal Kingdom : The Cricket's Cave

Media

Part of The Young Citizen: The Magazine for Young People

Title: Homes in the Animal Kingdom : The Cricket's Cave
Creator: Aunt Julia
Identifier: Elementary Science Section
Language: English
Source: The Young Citizen : the magazine for young people 3 (2) March 1937
Year: 1937
Subject: Crickets--Philippines
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Fulltext: 58 THE YOUNG CITIZEN !l4ftrch, 111.:;; ELEMENTARY SCIENCE SECTION THIS EARTH OF OURS LIGHTNING You have read how our earth sometimes has bad weather. Then there is rain or a storm. During a storm have yo'!- ever closed your eyes and covered your ears a'> the lightning flashed and the thunder rolled? Lightning is a form of electricity just like the current that gives us light at home. It was a n1an named Benjamin Franklin who proved lightning was electricity by sending up a kite made of silk and wire with a key at the end during a thunderstorm. -Franklin touched th2 key and drew a· spark which he proved to be electricity. The lig\'lt which we see when the electricity passes from heaven to earth is caused by the intense heat of friction which makes the air luminous. The great heat of the lighcning makes the air through ·which it passes expand very quickly. This causes what we might call. "a hole in the air.'' The surrounding air rushes in to fill the space and this disturbance of the air makes the noise we call thunder. HOMES IN THE ANIMAL KINGDOM THE CRICKET'S CAVE When you hear a cricket singing somewhere far away. I know you say to yourself that he is idling his cime instead of storing food like rhe busy ant. But the cricket is a happy creature and perh.lps has a saying like ours in Tagalog, Hahala na! It is strange to think of this singing creatufe as Jiving in. a dark cave. This lirtle black musician builds the doorway to his cav~ between ·two small stones. Inside there is a narrow tunnel where he lives. When the sun is bright Mr. Cricket stands at his doorway, his wings lifted a little and when he scrapes onr against the other he makes a pleasant sound. Mrs. Cricket does not always stay inside her cave. There is no music to her wings because she has other thi~gs to do: She goes Qut when · che sun is high and searches for a soft, dry spot. At the tip of her body is a long, slender thing that looks like a black needle. This is che tool she uses when shf lays her eggs. She thrusts i"C into the soft ground and leaves some eggs hidden there. Then she rakes the place with her jaws, pats it until there iS' no mark to show where her eggs are hidden. Then she goes to her cave which is also a narrow tunnel. 'the doorway of which is between two stems of grass.
pages: 58