282 MOLE-CRICKETS. 



turf, and laid open to view a curious scene of domes- 

 tic economy : 



" Ingentem lato dedit ore fenestram : 

 Apparet domus intus, et atria longa patescunt : 

 Apparent penetralia.'' 



A yawning breach of monstrous size he made ; 

 The inmost house is now to sight display'd ; 

 The admitted light with 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 sub- 

 stance. 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 this king- 

 dom, 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 num- 

 ber 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 quadru- 

 peds ! 



