of Selborne 213 



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 implement, 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 himiane inquirer may gratify his curirxsity without 

 injuring the object of it. It is reinnrk-able (h;it, thoiij'ji 

 Ihene insccis nre furnished with long legs behind, nnd 

 bnuviiy Ihlghfi for Iniping, lil<M |;,riiMiihnppciM ; yd ulicii 

 diivcn from their hole;^ tliey show no nclivily, (>iil f:nnvl 

 alotig in a shiftless matmer, so as easily lo \)r. lnl<cn : and 

 again, though provided with a curious apparatus of wings, 

 yet (hey never exert them wlu^n tlujre seems to be th(j 

 greatest occasion. The males only make that shrilling 

 noise perhaps out of rivalry and emulation, as is the case 

 with many animals which exert some sprightly note 

 during their breeding time : it is raised by a brisk 

 friction of one wing against the other. 'J'hey are solitary 

 beings, living singly male or female, each as it may 

 happen : but there must be a time when the sexes have 

 some intercourse, and then the wings may be useful 

 perhaps during the hours of night. When the males 

 meet they will fight fiercely, as I found by some which I 

 put into the crevices of a dry stone wall, where I should 

 have been glad to have made them settle. For though 

 they seemed distressed by being taken out of their know- 

 ledge, yet the first that got possession of the chinks would 

 seize upon any that were obtruded upon them with a vast 

 row of serrated fangs. With their strong jaws, toothed 

 like the shears of a lobster's claws, they perforate and 

 round their curious regular cells, having no fore-claws to 

 dig, like the mole-cricket. When taken in hand I could 

 not but wonder that they never offered to defend them- 

 selves, though armed with such formidable weapons. Of 

 such herbs as grow before the mouths of their burrows 

 they eat indiscriminately; and on a little platform, which 

 they make just by, they drop their dung ; and never, in 



