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906 Dr. Kidd on the 
of croakers, from the peculiar sound which they occasionally 
make ; a sound not very unlike, but more shrill and more 
soft than that of the frog. This sound, even in the case of a 
single individual, may be heard at the distance of some yards ; 
but when made by numerous individuals at the same time 
it may be heard, as I have reason to believe, at the distance 
of.some hundred yards, provided the air be in a favourable 
state. I have usually found the insect within a foot and a 
half of the surface, and in parts where the peat was neither 
quite dry, nor very moist ; of such a consistence indeed as is 
most favourable to the mining operations of the animal. 
The accounts of different authors differ as to the food of the 
mole-cricket. Having kept several individuals in glass vessels 
during some weeks, I observed, that of all kinds of vegetable 
food they preferred the potatoe, while cucumber they hardly 
touched ; but if raw meat were offered them they attacked it 
with great greediness, and in preference to every thing else. 
And, when they had been kept, lliuugh even but for a short 
tim3 without any food, they did not hesitate to attack each 
other ; in which case the victor soon devoured the flesh and 
softer parts of the vanquished. As I have not unfrequently 
found them in their native haunts maimed in various parts of 
the body, I have very little doubt that, although captivity may 
increase their ferocity, they are not, even in a natural state, 
free from each other's attacks. If they are carnivorous, they 
probably feed on worms, and various larvae, which are 
abundant in the peat-bogs above-mentioned, for I have re- 
peatedly found the horny and indigestible parts of insects 
within their stomachs. Similar relics I have found in the 
stomach of the pneumora and gryllus viridissimus. The 
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