xc] OF SELBORNE. 245 
In families, at such times, they are, like riiaraoh's plague of 
frogs, — in their bedchambers, and upon their beds, and in 
their ovens, and in their kneading-troughs.^ Their shrilling 
noise is occasioned by a brisk attrition of their wings. Cats 
catch hearth-crickets, and play with them as they do w^ith 
mice, and then devour them. Crickets may be destroyed, like 
wasps, by phials half filled with beer, or any other liquid, and 
set in their haunts ; for, being always eager to drink, they will 
crowd in till the bottles are full 
Selborne. 
LETTER XC. 
TO THE HONOUllABLE DAINES BARRINGTON. 
How diversified are the modes of life not only of incongruous 
but even of congenerous animals ; and yet their specific dis- 
tinctions are not more various than their propensities. 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, performing all its functions in a swampy 
wet soil. 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 
Exod. viii. 3. 
