ORTHOPTERA. 117 



since they already lie under reproach, they seem to have kept up 

 their claim to it, by turning pilferers to such an extent, that it has 

 become necessary to set a vigilant watch on their proceedings. 

 They are particularly fond of taking up their abode in melon and 

 hot-bed frames, where they find a congenial warmth, and an abun- 

 dance of tender and juicy food ; they are accused, and not 

 without reason, of getting the first taste of ripe fruit ; they seem 

 also to be quite as well pleased with beautiful, rare, and odorous 

 flowers, as the most enthusiastic florist, but show their admiration 

 by making a meal of them. They have a rather long and some- 

 what flattened body, which is armed at the hinder end with a pair 

 of slender sharp-pointed blades, opening and shutting horizontally 

 like scissors, or like a pair of nippers, which suggested the name 

 of Forficula, literally little nippers, applied to them by scientific 

 writers. Although no well authenticated instances are on record 

 of their entering the human ear, yet, during the day-time, they 

 creep into all kinds of crevices for the sake of concealment, and 

 come out to feed chiefly by night. They seem to be as timid as 

 hares, and when disturbed run into the nearest hole, satisfied, like 

 the quadrupeds above named, if they can get their heads under 

 cover, and thus exclude the sight of danger, even when their 

 bodies are fully exposed. Hence, it often happens that they will 

 be found with their heads buried in the bottom of flowers, their 

 forked tails sticking up among the stamens and pistils, so that they 

 might escape the notice of any one but a botanist or an entomolo- 

 gist. They are very injurious to flowers, eating holes in the 

 blossoms, and otherwise disfiguring them, particularly the dahlia ; 

 and Mouffet* says that "ox-hoofs, bog's hoofs, or old cast things 

 are used as traps for them by the English women, who hate them 

 exceedingly, because of clove-gilliflowers that they eat and spoyl." 

 It is common with English gardeners to hang up, among the flow- 

 ers and fruit-trees subject to their attacks, pieces of hollow reeds, 

 lobster claws, and the like, which offer enticing places of re- 

 treat for these insects on the approach of daylight, and by means 

 thereof great numbers of them are obtained in the morning. The 

 little creeping animal, with numerous legs, commonly, but errone- 



* Quoted from Westwood's " Introduction." 



