A SUMMER AT HOME. 199 



find the occupant ; and by reference to the proper books. 

 Of the two methods, the former is much to be preferred ; 

 the hitter, however, is much the more expeditious. In 

 this case I combined the two, and the creature proving to 

 be an insect, the mole-cricket, I then took a spade, and 

 dug out a half-dozen, to be quite sure, and found the 

 creature and the book's description to tally. 



While, as yet, these burrowing crickets have wrought 

 no damage, it is very evident that about mill-dams and 

 permanent embankments they might prove quite de- 

 structive; as much so, indeed, as mnskrats. 



I carefully traced one burrow from the bank of the 

 pond into the field. It was a trifle more than two feet 

 in a direct line, at a uniform depth of one foot from 

 the surface, then, obliquely turning, it sloped slightly 

 upward, and at a distance of thirteen inches from the 

 angle the burrow terminated in a capacious chamber. 

 None of the others that I examined were as long, but 

 all ended in chambers large enough to permit the cricket 

 to turn around comfortably. Many were so near the 

 surface that the roots of the grass had been destroyed 

 by the cricket's progress. These could be traced along 

 the sod, by the line of withered grass above them. Some 

 were very crooked, as though a new course had been 

 taken by the little burrower, whenever a pebble or root 

 liad been met with. 



Of mole-crickets, themselves, little need be said. Their 

 enormously developed fore-feet, by which they dig, at 

 once enables them to be recognized. Excepting these, 

 their appearance is much that of an ordinary black 

 cricket. Of course they sing, insect fashion, but 1 have 



