624 THE MOLE CKICKET AND THE MIGKATOKY LOCUST. 



Despite of its timidity, however, it seems to be combative in no slight 

 deoree, and if a blade of grass or straw be pushed into its hole, it will 

 seize the intruding substance so firmly that it can be drawn out of the 

 burrow before it will loosen its hold. The males are especially war- 

 like ; and if two specimens be confined in the same box, they will fight 

 until one is killed. The vanquished foe is then eaten by the victor. In 

 White's Natural History of Selborne there is a careful and interesting 

 description of the Field Cricket and its habits. 



One of the oddest-looking of the British insects is the Mole Cricket, 

 so called on account of its burrowing habits and altogether mole4ike 

 aspect. This insect attains considerable dimensions. 



Like those of the mole, the fore limbs of the Mole Cricket are of 

 enormous comparative size, and turned outward at just the same angle 

 from the body. All the legs are strong, but the middle and hinder pair 

 appear quite weak and insignificant when compared with the gigantic 

 developments of the front pair. This insect is rather local, but is found 

 in many parts of England, where it is known by sundry popular titles, 

 Croaker being the name most in vogue near Oxford, where it is found 

 in tolerable plenty. 



The color of the Mole Cricket is brown of diflferent tints, darker upon 

 the thorax than on the wing-coverts, both of which organs are covered 

 with a very fine and short down. 



As might be surmised from the extraordinary muscular power of the 

 fore legs, the Mole Cricket can burrow with great rapidity. The exca- 

 vation is of a rather complicated form, consisting of a moderately large 

 chamber with neatly-smoothed walls, many winding passages communi- 

 cating with this central apartment. In the chamber are placed from 

 one to four hundred eggs of a dusky yellow color, and the roof of the 

 apartment is so near the surface of the ground that the warmth of the 

 sunbeams penetrates through the shallow layer of earth and causes the 

 eggs to be hatched. 



The food of the Mole Cricket is mostly of a vegetable nature, but it 

 has been known to feed upon raw meat, upon other insects, and even to 

 exhibit a strong cannibalistic propensity when shut up in company and 

 deprived of its normal food. 



The Migratory Locust is a well-known instance of a very large 

 family of insects represented in our own land by many examples. All 

 the Locusts and Grasshoppers are vegetable feeders, and in many cases 

 their voracity is so insatiable, their jaws so powerful, and their numbers 

 so countless that they destroy every vestige of vegetation wherever they 

 may pass, and devastate the country as if a fire had swept over it. 



Such is the case with the Migratory Locust, so called from its habit 

 of congregating in vast armies, which fly like winged clouds over the 

 earth and wherever they alight strip every living plant of its verdure. So 



