niMANTOPUS. 259 



large pitce of turf, and laid open to view a curious scene of 

 domestic economy : — 



" Ingentem lato dedit ore fenestram : 

 Apparet donius intus, et atria longa patesciint : 

 Apparent penetralia. * 



A yawning breach of monstrous size he made • 

 The inmost house is now to sight display'd ; 

 The admittetl light witii sudden lustre falls 

 On the long galleries and the splendid halls. 



There were many caverns and winding passages leading to 

 a kind of chamber, neatly smoothed and rounded, and about 

 the size of a moderate snuff-box. Within the secret nursery 

 were deposited near an hundred eggs, of a dirty yellow 

 colour, and enveloped in a tough skin ; but too lately excluded 

 to contain any rudiments of young, being full of a viscous 

 substance. The eggs lay but shallow, and within the influence 

 of the sun, just under a little heap of fresh moved mould, like 

 that which is raised by ants. 



When mole-crickets fly, they move cursu undoso, rising 

 and falling in curves, like the other species mentioned 

 before. In different parts of the kingdom people call them 

 fen-crickets, churr-worms, and eve-churrs, all very apposite 

 names. 



Anatomists, who have examined the intestines of these 

 insects, astonish me with their accounts ; for they say that, 

 from the structure, position, and number of their stomachs, 

 or maws, there seems to be good reason to suppose that this 

 and the two former species ruminate, or chew the cud, like 

 many quadrupeds ! 



LETTER XCI. 



TO THE SAME. 



Selborne, May 7, 1779. 

 It is now more than forty years that I have paid some atten- 

 tion to the ornithology of this district, without being able to 

 exhaust the subject : new occurrences still arise as long aa 

 any ijiquiries are kept aKve. 



83 



