OF HARTING. 347 



cording to Kirby and Spence), unlike other ladies who 

 have noisy lords, are always silent ! We have no reason 

 for believing that these insects prey upon the living 

 cockroach under ordinary circumstances, as we have 

 had ample opportunity of seeing the two species 

 occupying the same apartments and living together 

 in perfect harmony, but we know that they do not 

 disdain the dead carcasses of the latter in the absence 

 of other food. 



The Field Cricket (Acheta campestris] is a larger 

 and much darker insect than the last species, and its 

 louder chirp is somewhat more agreeable, probably 

 from its associations. It burrows deeply in the soil, 

 as the House Cricket does in the mortar near our fire 

 places, and generally performs its serenade at the 

 entrance to its retreat, into which it quickly vanishes 

 on the slightest alarm. The Entomologist, however, 

 has learnt from no less an authority than Pliny, that 

 if a straw be introduced far enough into its burrow, 

 the cricket will immediately seize it in its jaws, and 

 retain its hold so firmly, that it will allow itself to be 

 dragged out and captured. 



The largest and most curious in appearance of our 

 crickets, if, indeed, it be not the most remarkable of 

 all our British Insects, is the Mole Cricket (Gryllotalpa 

 vulgaris}. Like the two last species, it is furnished 

 with wings and wing-covers; but the minstrelsy of the 

 male, which many have no doubt heard in the Brick- 

 kiln Cover and the " Severals," without having the 

 faintest suspicion that it was the performance of an 

 insect, is a low continuous purring, not much unlike 

 the jarring of the Goat-Sucker in miniature. As may 

 be inferred from its trivial name, it is a burrowing 

 insect, and incredibly active it is in its subterranean 

 operations ; we once dropped a specimen on the loose 

 mould of a newly made flower bed, and not only was 

 its disappearance under the surface almost instanta- 

 neous, but, although we lost no time in digging for it 



