of Selborne 217 



LETTER XLVIIl 



TO THE HONOURABLE DAINES BARRINGTON 



vSelborne. 



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

 gruous but even of congenerous animals ; and yet their 

 specific distinctions are not more various than their 

 propensities. 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 gryllo ialpa (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 improbable 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 without interruption, and not unlike the 

 chattering of the fern-owl, or goat-sucker, but more 

 inward. 



About the beginning of May they lay their eggs, as I 

 was once an eye-witness : for a gardener at an house, 

 where I was on a visit, happening to be mowing, on the 



