NATURAL HISTORY OF SELBORNE. 245 
EEN bere a eg WS 
TO THE SAME. 
SELBORNE. 
How diversified are the modes of life not only of incongruous 
but even of congenerous animals; and yet their specific distinctions 
are not more various than their propensities. Thus while the field- 
cricket delights in sunny dry banks, and the house-cricket rejoices 
amidst the glowing heat of the kitchen hearth or oven, the Gry/lus 
gryllo talpa (the mole-cricket), haunts moist meadows, and frequents 
the sides of ponds and banks of streams, performing all its functions 
in a swampy wet soil. With a pair of fore-feet, curiously adapted 
to the purpose, it burrows and works under ground like the mole, 
raising a ridge as it proceeds, but seldom throwing up hillocks. 
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MOLE-CRICKET. 
As mole-crickets often infest gardens by the sides of canals, they 
are unwelcome guests to the gardener, raising up ridges in their 
subterraneous progress, and rendering the walks unsightly. If 
they take to the kitchen quarters they occasion great damage 
among the plants and roots, by destroying whole beds of cabbages, 
young: legumes, and flowers. When dug out they seem very slow 
and helpless, and make no use of their wings by day ; but at night 
they come abroad, and make long excursions, as I have been 
convinced by finding stragglers, in a morning, in improbable 
places. In fine weather, about the middle of April. and just at 
