152 NATURAL HISTORY OF SELBORNE 



As their cheerful summer cry cannot but draw the 

 attention of a naturalist, I have often gone down to examine 

 the ceconomy of these grylli, and study their mode of life ; 

 but they are so shy and cautious that it is no easy matter 

 to get a sight of them ; for feeling a person's footsteps as 

 he advances, they stop short in the midst of their song, and 

 retire backward nimbly into their burrows, where they lurk 

 till all suspicion of danger is over. 



At first we attempted to dig them out with a spade, 1 but 

 without any great success ; for either we could not get to 

 the bottom of the hole, which often terminated under a 

 great stone ; or else in breaking up the ground, we inad- 

 vertently squeezed the poor insect to death. Out of one so 

 bruised we took a multitude of eggs, which were long and 

 narrow, of a yellow colour, and covered with a very tough 

 skin. By this accident we learned to distinguish the male 

 from the female ; the former of which is shining black, 

 with a golden stripe across his shoulders ; the latter is 

 more dusky, more capacious about the abdomen, and 

 carries a long, sword-shaped weapon at her tail, which 

 probably is the instrument with which she deposits her 

 eggs in crannies and safe receptacles. 



Where violent methods will not avail, more gentle means 

 will often succeed ; and so it proved in the present case ; 

 for, though a spade be too boisterous and rough an imple- 

 ment, a pliant stalk of grass, gently insinuated into the 

 caverns, will probe their windings to the bottom, and 

 quickly bring out the inhabitant; and thus the humane 

 inquirer may gratify his curiosity without injuring the 

 object of it. It is remarkable, that though these insects 

 are furnished with long legs behind, and brawny thighs for 

 leaping, like grasshoppers; yet when driven from their 

 holes they show no activity, but crawl along in a shiftless 

 manner, so as easily to be taken ; and again, though pro- 

 vided with a curious apparatus of wings, yet they never 

 exert them when there seems to be the greatest occasion. 

 The males only make that shrilling noise perhaps out of 



1 See the account in the " Garden Kalendar" (Vol. i., p. 307). [R. B. S.] 



