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NATURAL HISTORY OF SELBORNE 



the field-cricket delights in sunny dry banks, and the house-cricket 

 rejoices amidst the glowing heat of the kitchen hearth or oven, the 

 Gryllus 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. 



As mole-crickets often infest gardens by the sides of canals, 

 they are unwelcome guests to the gardener, raising up ridges in 



MOLE-CRICKET. 



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 con- 

 vinced by finding stragglers, in a morning, in improbable places. 

 In fine weather, about the middle of April, and just at the close of 

 day, they begin to solace themselves with a low, dull, jarring note, 

 continued for a long time without interruption, and not unlike the 

 chattering of the fern-owl, or goat-sucker, but more inward. 



