OF SELBORNE. i>:;5 



the house where I am now writing, they become noisome 

 pests, flying into the candles, and dashing into people's faces; 

 but may be blasted and destroyed by gunpowder discharged 

 into their crevices and crannies. In families, at such times, 

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

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

 "their kneading-troughs." z Their shrilling noise is occa- 

 sioned by u brisk attrition of their wings. Cats catch hearth 

 crickets, and, playing with them as they do with mice, devour 

 I hem. 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 

 arc full. 



LETTER XLVIII. 



TO THE SAME. 



Selborne. 



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 \iry 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 it's 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 un- 

 sightly. 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 

 out they seem very slow and helpless, and make no use 

 z Exod. viii. 3. 



