274 THE MOLE CRICKET. 



injuries of the weather as from the attacks of one of 

 the species of black beetles, which often destroys them. 

 The female places herself near the entrance of the 

 nest, and, whenever the beetle attempts to seize its 

 prey, the guardian insect catches it behind, and bites 

 it asunder. Nothing can exceed the care of these 

 animals in the preservation of their young. Where- 

 ever a nest is situated, fortifications, avenues, and 

 entrenchments surround it : there are also numerous 

 meanders which lead to it, and a ditch encompasses 

 the whole, which few other insects are capable of 

 passing. 



About the middle of April, if the weather be 

 fine, and just at the close of day, the Mole Crickets 

 utter a low, dull, jarring note, not much unlike the 

 chattering of the Goat-sucker. In the beginning of 

 May they lay their eggs. Mr. White says that a 

 gardener, at a house where he was on a visit, hap- 

 pening to be mowing by the side of a canal, on the 

 sixth of May, his scythe struck too deep, pared off 

 a large piece of turf, and laid open to view a cu- 

 rious scene of domestic ceconomy. There were 

 many caverns and winding passages leading to a 

 kind of chamber, neatly smoothed and rounded, 

 and about the size of a moderate snuff-box. With- 

 in this secret nursery were deposited near a hund- 

 red eggs of a dirty yellow colour, and enveloped 

 in a tough skin, but too lately excluded to contain 

 any rudiments of young, being full of a viscous 

 substance. The eggs lay but shallow, and within 

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

 fresh mould, like that which is raised by ants. 



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