254 FIELD-CRICKETS. 



instrument with which she deposits her eggs in crannies and 

 safe receptacles. 



Where violent methods will not avail, more gentle means 

 will often succeed ; and so it proved in the present case : for, 

 though a spade be too boisterous and rough an implement, a 

 pliant stalk of grass, gently insinuated into the caverns, will 

 probe their windings to the bottom, and quickly bring out 

 the inhabitant ; and thus the humane inquirer may gratify 

 his curiosity without injuring the object of it. It is 

 remarkable, that though these insects are furnished with 

 long legs behind, and brawny thighs for leaping, like grass- 

 hoppers ; yet when driven from their holes, they show no 

 activity, but crawl along in a shiftless manner, so as easily 

 to be taken : and again, though provided with a curious 

 apparatus of wings, yet they never exert them when there 

 seems to be the greatest occasion. The males only make 

 that shrilling noise, perhaps out of rivalry and emulation, as 

 is the case with many animals which exert some sprightly 

 note during their breeding-time : it is raised by a brisk 

 friction of one wing against the other. They are solitary 

 beings, living singly male or female, each as it may happen ; 

 but there must be a time when the sexes have some inter- 

 course, and then the wings may be useful, perhaps during 

 the hours of night. "When the males meet they will fight 

 fiercely, as I found by some which I put into the crevices of 

 a dry stone wall, where I should have been glad to have 

 made them settle: for though they seemed distressed by 

 being taken out of their knowledge, yet the first that got 

 possession of the chinks, would seize on any that were 

 obtruded upon them, with a vast row of serrated fangs. 

 "With their strong jaws, toothed like the shears of a lobster's 

 claws, they perforate and round their curious regular cells, 

 having no fore-claws to dig, like the mole-cricket. When 

 taken in hand, I could not but wonder that they never 

 offered to defend themselves, though armed with such 

 formidable weapons. Of such herbs as grow before the 

 mouths of their burrows, they eat indiscriminately ; and on 

 a little platform, which they make just by, they drop their 

 dung ; and never in the day-time seem to stir more than two 

 or three inches from home. Sitting in the entrance of their 

 caverns, they chirp all night as well as day, from the middle 



