DOMESTIC CRICKET. MOLE CRICKET. 391 



casts are at this time eaten by the Arabs, at the proper season, 

 when they can procure them ; so that in all probability this dish 

 has been used in the time of St. John. Ancient customs are not 

 here subject to many changes, and the victuals of St. John are not 

 believed unnatural here ; and I was assured by a judicious Greek 

 priest, that their church had never taken the word in any other 

 sense ; and he even laughed at the idea of its being a bird or a 

 plant." 



[Hasselquist's Travels, Engl. Trans. p. 419. 



The gryltus cristatus above-mentioned is a highly beautiful ani- 

 mal ; being of a bright red, with the body annulated with black ; 

 and the legs varied with yellow : the upper wings tessellated with 

 alternate variegations of dark and pale green ; the lower with 

 transverse, undulated streaks: the length of the animal from 

 head to tail is about four inches ', and the expanse of the wings 

 from tip to tip, when fully extended, hardly less than seven inches 

 and a half. It is exquisitely figured in the works of Roesel. 



3. Domestic Cricket. 

 Gryllus domesticus. Linn. 



This harmless and familiar little insect belongs,* from the pecu- 

 liar form and structure of its wings, to the gryllus genus. It is an 

 inhabitant of almost every house, and is found particularly about 

 ovens and kitchen chimneys : it wanders about during the whole 

 night, keeping up a continual chirping, especially before rain. It 

 is said to forsake houses infested with the cock. roach ; and is de- 

 stroyed by pills or small masses of arsenic, and the fresh root of 

 the daucus or carrot mixed with flour; or the root of the nymphaea 

 boiled in milk. 



4. Mole Cricket. 

 Gryllus gryllotalpa. Linn. 



Of all the British insects this is by far the most curious, and in 

 its colour and manners differs greatly from the rest. It is of an 

 uncouth, and even formidable aspect, measuriug more than two 

 inches in length j and is of a broad and slightly flattened shape, 



2c4 



