LETTER XLVIII 



TO THE SAME 



SELBORNE. 



How diversified are the modes of life not only of in- 

 congruous but even of congenerous animals ; and yet their 

 specific distinctions are not more various than their pro- 

 pensities. 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 gryllotalpa (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. 



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 improb- 

 able 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 



1 Gryllotalpa gryllotalpa^ or Gryllotalpa vulgaris of modern entomologists. 

 [R. B. S.] 



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