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 wings by day; but at night they
come abroad, and make long excursions, as I have been convinced
by finding stragglers, in a morning, in improbable places. In fine
weather, about the middle of April, and just at the close of day,
they begin to solace themselves with a low, dull, jarring note,
continued for a long time without interruption, and not unlike the
chattering of the fern-owl, or goat-sucker, but more inward.
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