18 THK ZOOLOGIST. 



galleries, and the Leaf-Cricket on the hough stretches out its 

 often long fore legs to listen with the pride that a Spaniard 

 exhibits the calves of his shins at a bull-fight. 



According to Dr. Henry Woodward and others, the gigantic 

 horsetails and ferns that covered the swamps of Europe at an 

 early period were populated by Cockroaches and kinds of Mantis 

 and when the leaves of the woodland appeared then Crickets ana 

 Leaf-Crickets were seen. The Mole- Crickets and Field-Crickets 

 are now distributed over Europe, Africa, Asia, and America, 

 and, as neither fly far, their genealogy recalls vast geological 



a86 The European Mole-Cricket (Curtilla* vulgaris) haunts moist 

 meadows, and frequents the sides of ponds and the banks , of 

 streams, where it excavates its galleries like the Mole with a 

 pair of hands that resemble gardening gloves, and lives tne 

 troglodyte life of the immature Cicada. I have only seen it 

 alive on the flowerv meadows that border the Hamble River in 

 Hampshire.! Gilbert White, who lived at Selborne in the same 

 county, says that during fine weather about the middle of April, 

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

 with a low jarring note continued for a long time without inter- 

 ruption, not unlike the " churr " of the Goatsucker. This croak- 

 ing note that sounds " ree-ree ! " Latreille found soft and pleasing ; 

 when laid hold of Yersin says it performs " yea-yea ! which is 

 no doubt more pathetic. About the beginning of May the female 

 lays her sand-coloured eggs, over which, Dr. Ratzeburg says, she 

 keeps watch. The European Mole-Cricket, that possesses no 

 leaping power to assist it to take flight, has been seen at the 

 close of day poised on its fan-shaped wings rising and falling in 

 the air ; and Dr. Abel, when travelling in China, was surprised, 

 when the candles were lit in his boat on the river, to see a Mole- 

 Cricket of large size fly in at the window, and sometimes one was 

 found in the beds. In the north of India and Cashmere a small 

 Mole-Cricket is abroad from July to September ; it closely re- 

 sembles the one usually met with in South America. The male 



* The nomenclature is in agreement with the recent Orthopterous Cata 

 logues compiled by Mr. Kirby, and published by order of the Trustees of the 

 British Museum.— Ed. 



f For other British localities, of. Zool. 1906, pp. 357, 43/, 4/0. 



