MOLE CRICKET. 



243 



muscles of the arms in digging. The arms them- 

 selves are strong and broad, and the hand is fur- 

 nished with four large sharp claws, pointing somewhat 

 obliquely outwards, this being the direction in which 

 it digs, throwing the earth on each side of its course. 



The Moh-CricJcet, with a separate outline of one of its hands 



The nest which the female constructs for her eggs, 

 in the beginning of May, is well worthy of attention. 

 The Rev Mr White of Selborne, tells us that a 

 gardener, at a house where he was on a visit, while ^ 

 mowing grass by the side of a canal, chanced to strike 

 his scythe too deep, and pared off a large piece of 

 turf, laying open to view an interesting scene of 

 domestic economy. There was a pretty chamber dug 

 in the clay, of the form and about the dimensions it 

 would have had if moulded by an egg, the walls 

 being neatly smoothed and polished. In this little 

 cell were deposited about a hundred eggs, of the 

 size and form of caraway comfits, and of a dull tar- 

 nished white colour. The eggs were not very deep, 



