xc.] 



OF SELBORNE. 



2(5 



In families, at such times, they are, like Pharaoh's plague of 

 i'rogs, in their bedchambers, and upon their beds, and in 

 their ovens, and in their kneading-troughs. 1 Their shrilling 

 noise is occasioned by a brisk attrition of their wings. Cats 

 catch hearth-crickets, and play with them as they do with 

 mice, and then devour them. Crickets may be destroyed, like 

 wasps, by phials half filled with beer, or any other liquid, and 

 set in their haunts ; for, being always eager to drink, they will 

 crowd in till the bottles are full. 



SELBORNE. 



LETTER XC. 



TO THE HONOURABLE DAINES BARRINGTON. 



How diversified are the modes of life not only of incongruous 

 but even of congenerous animals ; and yet their specific dis- 

 tinctions 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 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 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 



1 Exod. viii. 3. 



