174 NATURALISTS CABINET. 



Occasional alterations in their nest. 



nues, and entrenchments surround it : there are 

 also numerous meanders which lead to it, and a 

 ditch encompasses the whole, which few other in- 

 sects are capable of passing. 



These insects, at the approach of winter, re- 

 move their nest to so great a depth in the earth 

 as to have it always lower than the frost can pe- 

 netrate. When the mild season cbmes on, they 

 raise it in proportion to the advances of that 

 favourable time, and at last elevate it so near to 

 the surface as to render it susceptible both of air 

 and sun-shine: and if the frost return, they 

 again sink it to its proper depth. A method 

 very similar is practised by the ants with their 

 nests. 



Mole crickets, about the middle of April, if 

 the weather be fine, and just at the close of day, 

 utter a low, dull, jarring note, not much unlike 

 the chattering of the goat-sucker. In the begin- 

 ning of May they lay their eggs. Mr. White 

 says, that a gardener, at a house where he was 

 on a visit, happening to be mowing by the side 

 of a canal, on the sixth of May, his scythe struck 

 too deep, pared off a large piece of turf, and laid 

 open to view a curious scene of domestic eco- 

 nomy. There were many caverns and winding 

 passages leading to a kind of chamber, neatly 

 smoothed and rounded, and about the size of a 

 moderate snuff-box. Within this secret nursery 

 were deposited near a hundred eggs of a dirty 

 yellow colour, and enveloped in a tough skin, 



