EATING INSECTS. 143 



hand, says it only eats insects, a palpable mistake, 

 since it would often be impossible for them to find 

 any in the places which they frequent, except in 

 some instances where they may be established in 

 the same hearth with a colony of the cock-roach 

 (Elatta Oriejitalis, LINN.), when it is probable the 

 two species prey reciprocally on each other. 



A foreign insect, which Kirby supposes to be a 

 cricket (Achetd), is described by Captain Green to 

 have exceeded our common cricket in voracity. At 

 Cuddapa, in the ceded districts to the northward 

 of Mysore, these are said to abound in the night, 

 being very injurious to papers, books, and leather, 

 which they both discolour and devour. Such also 

 is their boldness and avidity, that they attack the 

 exposed parts of the human body during sleep, 

 nibbling the ends of the fingers, particularly the 

 skin under the nails, which is only discoverable by 

 a slight soreness that succeeds *. 



Although we have paid considerable attention to 

 the habits of this order, both in the fields and when 

 individuals were kept in a state of confinement, and 

 have watched their movements for hours together, we 

 never saw them, when at liberty, attack other insects, 

 much less any of their own kindred. But having 

 one day put several blue under-winged grasshoppers 

 (Locusta ccerulescens, &c.) alive into a collecting 

 phial, for the purpose of feeding some insectivorous 

 birds (Sylvia hortensis, &c.), we were not a little 

 surprised to see them fall immediately upon one 

 another, with the most cannibal voracity. In 

 another instance we placed a male and female of 

 the large green locust (Acrida viridissima) in the 

 same phial, when the female forthwith munched a 

 large piece out of the other's back, and upon rescuing 

 him from her fangs, and giving him the advantage of 

 * Intr. i. 242. 



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