352 NATURAL HISTORY 



beds, and in their ovens, and in their knead ing-troughs V 

 Their shrilling noise is occasioned by a brisk attrition 

 of their wings. Cats catch hearth crickets, and, play- 

 ing with them as they do with mice, devour them. 

 Crickets may be destroyed, like wasps, by phials half 

 filled with beer, or any liquid, and set in their haunts ; 

 for, being always eager to drink, they will crowd in till 

 the bottles are full 2 . 



LETTER XLVIIL 



TO THE SAME. 



SELBORNE. 



How diversified are the modes of life not only of incon- 

 gruous but even of congenerous animals ; and yet their 

 specific distinctions are not more various than their 

 propensities. Thus, while the field cricket delights in 

 sunny dry banks, and the house cricket rejoices amidst 

 the glowing heat of the kitchen hearth or oven, the 

 Gryllus Gryllotalpa 1 , or mole cricket, haunts moist mea- 

 dows, and frequents the sides of ponds and banks of 

 streams, performing all its functions in a swampy wet 

 soil. With a pair of fore feet, curiously adapted to the 

 purpose, it burrows and works under ground like the 

 mole, raising a ridge as it proceeds, but seldom throw- 

 ing up hillocks. 



As mole crickets often infest gardens by the sides of 

 canals, they are unwelcome guests to the gardener, 

 raising up ridges in their subterraneous progress and 

 rendering the walks unsightly. If they take to the kit- 

 chen quarters, they occasion great damage among the 

 plants and roots, by destroying whole beds of cabbages, 

 young legumes, and flowers. When dug out they seem 



1 Exod. viii. 3. 



2 Some additional particulars respecting the house cricket will be 

 found in the Observations on various parts of Nature, printed in a sub- 

 sequent part of this volume. E. T. B. 



1 [Grytlotalpa rulgaris, LATR.] 



