80 NATURAL HISTORY 



LETTER XLVIII. 



TO TIIR SAME. 



SELBORNE. 



How diversified are the modes of life not 

 only of incongruous but even of congener- 

 ous animals ; and yet their specific distinc- 

 tions are not more various than their pro- 

 pensities. Thus, while the Jield-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. 



