THE MOLE-CRICKET. 77 



creature, and it is recommended by the naturalist Curtis, to 

 those who are fond of petting " mice and such small gear," 

 that they should rather keep some of these singular insects, 

 with a probability of being rewarded for their pains by some 

 interesting discovery as to their imperfectly -known economy, 

 perhaps, also, as to the above point of their supposed lumi- 

 nosity. We might literally behold in it " a meteor tamed," 

 and thus assign to it, with certainty, a place among other natu- 

 ral causes which help to elucidate those wandering lights 

 which have led astray both philosopher and fool. This singu- 

 lar cricket is common in some counties of England, especially 

 Hants and Wilts ; and its structure, with what is known of 

 its economy, furnish one amongst instances without number, 

 of admirable adaptation of means to purposed ends. 



The mole-cricket is, as its name imports, an extensive, and, 

 where found in kitchen-gardens, a destructive burrower, 

 working underground like a field-mouse, and throwing up 

 ridges, though no hillocks, like the mole. To fit him for this 

 subterranean mode of progression, he is furnished with a 

 chest powerful as a battering-ram, aided by fore-feet like 

 those of a mole, hand-shaped, and mailed like a ivarrior's glove* 

 His wing-cases are small, but a pair of ample wings enable 

 him to cleave the air as well as earth; and to the above 

 powers he adds, in the opinion of Curtis, that of cleaving 

 he waters also swimming by the resistance of the wing- 



* See Vignette. 



