OF SELBORNE 201 



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 distinc- 

 tions are not more various than their propensities. Thus, while 

 the ^eld-cricket delights in sunny dry banks, and the house-cricket 

 rejoices amidst the glowing heat of the kitchen hearth or oven, 

 the gnjllus gn/l/o talpa (the mole-cricket) haunts moist meadows, 

 and frequents the sides of ponds and banks of streams, performing 

 all it's 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. 



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 

 the close of day, they begin to solace themselves with a low, 

 dull, jarring note, continued for a long time without interruption, 

 and not unlike the chattering of the fern-owl, or goat-sucker, but 

 more inward. 



About the beginning of May they lay their eggs, as I was 

 once an eye-witness : for a gardener at an house, where I was 

 on a visit, happening to be mowing, on the 6th of that month, 

 by the side of a canal, his scythe struck too deep, pared off a 

 large piece of turf, and laid open to view a curious scene of 

 domestic oeconomy : 



" ingentem lato dedit ore fenestram : 



" Apparet domus intus, et atria longa patescunt : 

 " Apparent penetralia." l 



a [Virg., sn., ii., 482-84.] 



