204 WHITE 



In the summer we have observed them to fly, when it became 

 dusk, out of the windows and over the neighboring roofs. This 

 feat of activity accounts for the sudden manner in which they 

 often leave their haunts, as it does for the method by which 

 they come to houses where they were not known before. It 

 is remarkable that many sorts of insects seem never to use 

 their wings but when they have a mind to shift their quarters 

 and settle new colonies. When in the air they move "volatu 

 undoso" in waves or curves, like woodpeckers, opening and 

 shutting their wings at every stroke, and so are always rising 

 or sinking. 



When they increase to a great degree, as they did once in 

 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, " in their bedchambers, 

 and upon their beds, and in their ovens, and in their kneading 

 troughs." a Their shrilling noise is occasioned by a brisk attri- 

 tion of their wings. Cats catch hearth-crickets, and, playing 

 with them as they do with mice, devour them. 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 are full. 



NOTE 

 iExod. viii. 3. G. W. 



LETTER XLVIII 



SELBORNE. 



How diversified are the modes of life not only of incongru- 

 ous but even of congenerous animals ; and yet their specific 

 distinctions 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 



