248 THE NATURAL HISTORY 



a long time .without interruption, and not unlike the 

 chattering of the fern-owl, or goat-sucker, but more 

 inward. 



About the beginning of May they lay their eggs, as I 

 was once an eye-witness : for a gardener at an house, 

 where I was on a visit, happening to be mowing, on the 

 6th of that month, by the side of a canal, his scythe struck 

 too deep, pared off a large piece of turf, and laid open to 

 view a curious scene of domestic ceconomy : 



..." ingentem lato dedit ore fenestram. 

 Apparet domus intus, et atria longa patescunt : 

 Apparent . . . penetralia." 



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. Within this 

 secret nursery were deposited near an hundred 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-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 dilTerent parts of this kingdom 

 people call thena 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 ! 



