e-ortc 



LETTER XLVIII. 



To the same. 



SELBORNE. 



OVV diversified are the modes of life not only 

 of incongruous 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 gryllotalpa (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 side 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 

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



