DR. BOLI’S ALLEGORICAL BESTIARY.

No. 8.—Crickets.

A SINGLE CRICKET is a complete mobile weather station. From the frequency of its chirps, the ambient temperature may be calculated; from the length of its hops, the barometric pressure; from the angle of its antennae, the wind speed; from the width of its thorax, the mean annual rainfall in Bushnell, Fla. In the nineteenth century, when a class of professional meteorologists first arose, crickets were hunted almost to extinction; but, under protective legislation, their numbers have recovered satisfactorily. Crickets are associated with conscience in popular culture—an association that puzzles and amuses entomologists, who know that the crickets’ weakness to temptation makes them especially prone to crimes of embezzlement.

In traditional medieval allegory, the cricket represents Latitude.