MOLE-CRICKET. 237 



LETTER XC. 

 TO THE HON. DAINES BARRINGTON. 



SELBORNE. 



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 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 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. 



* This is the gryllotalpa vulgaris of Latreille ; the structure of its 

 arms and fore-feet tit it in a peculiar manner for these operations, being 



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frame-work of tough gristle, in the front edge of which the shoulder- 

 blades are firmly articulated. This structure seems intended to prevent 

 the breast from being injured by the powerful muscles of the arms during 

 the operation of digging. The arms are powerfully formed, and of great 

 breadth, in proportion to the size of the animal ; the feet are shaped 

 like two broad hands, and provided with four large broad-based and sharp 

 claws, pointing somewhat obliquely outwards, like the hands of the mole, 

 this being the direction in which the animal digs, throwing the earth 

 on both sides as it advances. ED. 

 3 



