THE GRASSHOPPER KIND. 31 



lighted with the chirruping of crickets, and kept 

 several of them for his amusement, enclosed in 

 a box, which he placed in a warm situation. 

 Others, on the contrary, think there is something 

 ominous and melancholy in the sound, and use 

 every endeavour to banish this insect from their 

 houses. Ledelius tells us of a woman who was 

 very much incommoded by crickets, and tried, 

 but in vain, every method of banishing them 

 from her house. She at last accidentally suc- 

 ceeded; for having on6 day invited several 

 guests to her house, where there was a wedding, 

 in order to increase the festivity of the entertain- 

 ment, she procured drums and trumpets to en- 

 tertain them. The noise of those was so much 

 greater than w r hat the little animals were used to, 

 that they instantly forsook their situation, and 

 were never heard in that mansion more. 



But of all the cricket kind, that which is called 

 the Mole Cricket is the most extraordinary. This 

 animal is the largest of all the insects with which 

 we are acquainted in this country, being two 

 inches and a half in length, and three quarters of 

 an inch in breadth. The colour is of a dusky 

 brown ; and at the extremity of the tail there are 

 two hairy excrescences, resembling in some sense 

 the tail of a mouse. The body consists of eight 

 scaly joints or separate folds, is brown on the 

 upper part, and more deeply tinged below. The 

 wings are long, narrow, and terminate in a sharp 

 point, each having a blackish line running down 

 it : however, when they are extended, they ap- 

 pear to be much broader than could at first sight 



