280 MOLE-CRICKETS. 



before. It is remarkable, that many sorts of insects 

 seem never to use their wings, but when they have a 

 mind to shift their quarters and settle new colonies. 

 When in the air, they move volatu undoso, in waves, 

 or curves, like woodpeckers, opening and shutting 

 their wings at every stroke, and so are always rising 

 or sinking. 



When they increase to a great degree, as they did 

 once in the house where I am now writing, they be- 

 come noisome pests, flying into the candles, and 

 dashing into people's faces ; but may be blasted and 

 destroyed by gunpowder discharged into their cre- 

 vices and crannies. In families, at such times, they 

 are, like Pharaoh's plague of frogs, " in their bed- 

 chambers, and upon their beds, and in their ovens, 

 and in their kneading- troughs*." Their shrilling 

 noise is occasioned by a brisk attrition of their wings. 

 Cats catch hearth-crickets, and, playing with them as 

 they do with mice, devour them. Crickets may be 

 destroyed, like wasps, by phials half filled with beer, 

 or any liquid, and set in their haunts ; for, being 

 always eager to drink, they will crowd in till the 

 bottles are full. 



LETTER XC. 



\ 



TO THE SAME. 



SELBORNE. 



How diversified are the modes of life, not only of 

 incongruous, but even of congenerous animals ! and 



* Exod. viii. 3. 



