THE NATURAL HISTORY 



with a stick, we were actually unable to recapture it. 

 Its strength, too, is amazing ; the whole length of the 

 insect is less than two inches, and yet, when on one 

 occasion we had several specimens in a large tin vessel, 

 we saw one of them push aside, with apparent ease, a 

 mass of clay weighing very little less than nineteen 

 ounces. It was in the act of burrowing between the 

 tin on one side and the clay on the other, that it dis- 

 played this wonderful strength, and, at the same time, 

 its mode of using the extraordinary and efficient tun- 

 nelling apparatus with which it is provided. This 

 consists of the forelegs, so different in structural ap- 

 pearance from those of other crickets, that the purpose 

 of the modification is self-evident at a glance. The 

 tarsi appear to be comparatively useless and insig- 

 nificant, but the tibiae and the femora are very much 

 enlarged and flattened, each of the former especially 

 being deeply notched on the outer edge, so as to pre- 

 sent a striking resemblance to the hand of the mole ; 

 this resemblance is further increased by the character 

 of their articulations, the result of which is, that when 

 the hands are brought into use their action is neces- 

 sarily outwards at the best possible angle for insuring 

 the attainment of the purpose for which they were 

 designed. It will scarcely be needful to add that the 

 outer integument of these very powerful limbs, as well 

 as that of the head and thorax, are as hard and un- 

 yielding as a shell, or that they are clothed, like the 

 skin of the mole, with a fine soft silky anti-friction 

 pile. 



In the Grasshopper family we notice, not unfre- 

 quently after a storm in summer, but chiefly in autumn, 

 many specimens of a delicate green species, the Me- 

 conema varia, crawling up the mossy trunks of the 

 beech trees in the Park ; this species no doubt passes 

 the summer months among the foliage on which it 

 feeds, and is dislodged in great numbers by the Equi- 

 noctial gales. The more remarkable Great Green 



