NA TURAL HISTOR Y OF SELBORNE. 245 



LETTER XLVIII. 



TO THE SAME. 



SELBORNE. 



How diversified are the modes of life not only of incongruous 

 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 

 gryllo talpa (the mole-cricket), haunts moist meadows, 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 throwing up hillocks. 



MOLE-CRICKET. 



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 kitchen 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 very slow 

 and helpless, and make no use of their wings by day ; but at night 

 they come abroad, and make long excursions, as I have been 

 convinced by finding stragglers, in a morning, in improbable 

 places. In fine weather, about the middle of April, and just at 



