272 NATURAL HISTORY 



nursery were deposited near a hundred eggs of a dirty yellow 

 colour, and enveloped in a tough skin, but too lately ex- 

 cluded to contain any rudiments of young, being full of a 

 viscous substance. The egga lay but shallow, and within 

 the influence of the sun, just under a little heap of fresh 

 moved mould, like that which is raised by ants. 



When mole crickets fly, they move cursu undoso, rising 

 and falling in curves, like the other species mentioned 

 before. In different parts of this kingdom people call them 

 fen crickets, churr worms, and eve churrs, all very apposite 

 names. 



Anatomists, who have examined the intestines of these 

 insects, astonish me with their accounts ; for they say that, 

 from the structure, position, and number of their stomachs, 

 or maws, there seems to be good reason to suppose that 

 this and the two former species ruminate or chew the cud 

 like many quadrupeds ! ! 



1 In tlie Hunterian Collection are preparations of the singularly 

 complex stomach here alluded to as it exists in the mole cricket 

 (No. 611) and in the locust (Nos. 474, 610). "The structure," says 

 Professor Owen, in a note to this passage, " is similar in both, as 

 to the number of cavities, but differs in their relative positions. The 

 first cavity, or crop, is formed in the locust by a gradual dilatation of 

 the gullet ; but in the mole cricket it is appended, like the crop of a 

 granivorous bird, to one side of the gullet, communicating with it bv 

 a lateral opening. The canal which intervenes between the crop and 

 gizzard is relatively longer in the mole cricket than in the locust. Its 

 gi/zard is small, but armed internally with longitudinal rows of com- 

 plex teeth. Two large lateral pouches open into the lower part, or 

 termination, of the gizzard. The analogy between this digestive appa- 

 ratus and that of the ruminants is vague, and does not extend beyond 

 the number of cavities. It is more like that of the bird ; and since the 

 comminuting or masticating organs are situated, as in the feathered 

 class, in the stomach, it cannot be supposed that the food is again re- 

 turned to the mouth, where it has already received all the division 

 which the oral instruments can effect." ED. 



