EATING INSECTS. 149 



hand, says it only eats insects, — a palpable mistake, 

 since it would often be impossible for them to find any 

 in the places which they frequent, except in some 

 instances where they may be established in the same 

 hearth with a colony of the cock-roach {Blaita Ori- 

 entalisy Lix>rN.), when it is probable the two species 

 prey reciprocally on each other. 



A foreign insect, which Kirby supposes to be a 

 cricket {Jichetci)^ is described by Captain Green to 

 have exceeded our common cricket in voracity. At 

 Cuddapa, in the ceded districts to the northward of 

 Mysore, these are said to abound in the night, being 

 very injurious to papers, books, and leather, which 

 they both discolour and devour. Such also is their 

 boldness and avidity, that they attack the exposed 

 parts of the human body during sleep, nibbling the 

 ends of the fingers, particularly the skin under the 

 nails, which is only discoverable by a slight soreness 

 that succeeds* 



Although we have paid considerable attention to 

 the habits of this order, both in the fields and when 

 individuals were kept in a state of confinement, and 

 have watched their movements for hours together, we 

 never saw them, when at liberty, attack other insects, 

 much less any of their own kindred. But having 

 one day put several blue under-winged grasshoppers 

 (Locusta ccerulescens, &c,) alive into a collecting 

 phial, for the purpose of feeding some insectivorous 

 birds {Sylvia hortensis, &c,) we were not a little 

 surprised to see them fall immediately upon one ano- 

 ther, with the most cannibal voracity. In another 

 instance we placed a male and female of the large 

 green locust {Jlcrida viridissima) in the same phial, 

 when the female forthwith munched a large piece out 

 of the other's back, and upon rescuing him from her 

 fangs, and giving him the advantage of position, he 



* Intr. i, 242. 

 VOL. xir. 13* 



