It
is remarkable that, though these insects are furnished with long
legs behind, and brawny thighs for leaping, like grasshoppers; yet
when driven from their holes they show no activity, but crawl
along in a shiftless manner, so as easily to be taken: and again,
though provided with a curious apparatus of wings, yet they never
exert them when there seems to be the greatest occasion. The
males only make that shrilling noise perhaps out of rivalry and
emulation, as is the case with many animals which exert some
sprightly note during their breeding time: it is raised by a brisk
friction of one wing against the other. They are solitary beings,
living singly male or female, each as it may happen: hut there must
be a time when the sexes have some intercourse, and then the
wings may be useful perhaps during the hours of night. When the
males meet they will fight fiercely, as I found by some which I put
into the crevices of a dry stone wall, where I should have been glad
to have made them settle. For though they seemed distressed by
being taken out of their knowledge, yet the first that got possession
of the chinks would seize upon any that were obtruded upon them
with a vast row of serrated fangs.
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