256 
NATURAL HISTORY 
" troughs Their flirilling noife is occafioned by a brifk 
attrition of their wings. Cats catch hearth-crickets, and, playing 
with them as they do with mice, devour them. Crickets may be 
deftroyed, like wafps, by phials half filled with beer, or any 
liquid, and fet in their haunts ; for, being ahyays eager to drink, 
they will crowd in till the bottles are full. 
LETTER XLVIII. 
TO THE SAME. 
Selborne. 
H ow diverfified are the modes of life not only of incongruous 
but even of congenerous animals ; and yet their fpecific diftinc- 
tions are not more various than their propenfities. Thus, while 
the field-cricket delights in funny dry banks, and the houfe-cricket 
rejoices arnidft the glowing heat of the kitchen hearth or oven, the 
gryllus grylh talpa (the mole-cricket) ^ haunts moift meadows, and 
frequents the fides of ponds and banks of ftreams, performing all 
it's fundlions in a fwampy wet foil. With a pair of fore-feet, 
curioufly adapted to the purpofe, it burrows and works under 
ground like the mole, raifmg a ridge as it proceeds, but feldoni 
throwing up hillocks. 
« Exod, viii. 3, 
As 
