OF SELBORNE 217 



by phials half filled with beer, or any liquid, and set in 

 their haunts ; for, being always eager to drink, they will 

 crowd in tiU the bottles are full. 



LETTER XLVIII 



TO THE HONOURABLE DAINES HARRINGTON 



Selborne. 

 How diversified are the modes of life not only of incon- 

 gruous but even of congenerous animals ; and yet their 

 specific distinctions are not more various than their pro- 

 pensities. Thus, while the field-cricket delights in sunny 

 dry banks, and the house-cricket rejoices amidst the 

 glowing heat of the kitchen hearth or oven, the gryllus 

 gryllo talpa (the mole-cricket), haunts moist meadows, and 

 frequents the sides of ponds and banks of streams, per- 

 forming all its functions in a swampy wet soU. With a 

 pair of fore-feet, curiously adapted to the purpose, it 

 burrows and works under ground like the mole, raising a 

 ridge as it proceeds, but seldom throwing up hillocks. 



As mole-crickets often infest gardens by the sides of 

 canals, they are unwelcome guests to the gardener, raising 

 up ridges in their subterraneous progress, and rendering 

 the walks unsightly. If they take to the kitchen quarters, 

 they occasion great damage among the plants and roots, by 

 destroying whole beds of cabbages, young legumes, and 

 flowers. When dug out they seem very slow and helpless, 

 and make no use of their wings by day ; but at night they 

 come abroad, and make long excursions, as I have been 

 convinced by finding stragglers, in a morning, in improb- 

 able places. In fine weather, about the middle of April, 

 and just at the close of day, they begin to solace themselves 

 with a low, dull, jarring note, continued for a long time 

 without interruption, and not unlike the chattering of the 

 fern-owl, or goat-sucker, but more inward. 



