THE MOLE-CRICKET. 77 



creature, and it is recommended by the naturalist Curtis, to 

 those who are fond of petting " mice and such small gear," 

 that they should rather keep some of these singular insects, 

 with a probability of being rewarded for their pains by some 

 interesting discovery as to their imperfectly-known economy, 

 perhaps, also, as to the above point of their supposed luminosity. 

 We might literally behold in it " a meteor tamed," and thus 

 assign to it, with certainty, a place among other natural causes 

 which" help to elucidate those wandering lights which have led 

 astray both philosopher and fool. This singular cricket is 

 common in some counties of England, especially Hants and 

 Wilts ; and its structure, with what is known of its economy, 

 furnish one amongst instances without number, of admirable 

 adaptation of means to purposed ends. 



The mole-cricket is, as its name imports, an extensive, and, 

 where found in kitchen- gardens, a destructive burrower, 

 working underground like a field-mouse, and throwing up 

 ridges, though no hillocks, like the mole. To fit him for this 

 subterranean mode of progression, he is furnished with a 

 chest powerful as a battering-ram, aided by fore feet like 

 those of a mole, hand-shaped, and mailed like a ^varrior's 

 glove.* His wing-cases are small, but a pair of ample wings 

 enable him to cleave the air as well as earth ; and to the above 

 powers he adds, in the opinion of Curtis, that of cleaving 

 the waters also swimming by the resistance of the wing- 



* See Vignette. 



