68 



ANIMALS OF LAND AND SEA 



In old houses at night or when it is very still a faint ticking 

 sound is often heard which seems to come from the beams or 

 from the furniture. It does come from the woodwork, and it 



indicates the pres- 

 ence therein or 

 thereon of a Httle 

 beetle called the 

 "death-watch." In 

 dry wood their little 

 grubs live very long 

 before becoming 

 large enough to 

 transform to the 

 ?^ adult. Last year a 

 number of the 

 beetles emerged 

 from a chair I 

 bought seventeen 

 years ago. The 

 grubs had been in 

 the wood when the 

 chair was made. 

 Other kinds of wood 

 boring grubs have 

 been known to live 

 , for more than thirty 

 years before trans- 

 forming into beetles. 

 Another little insect, 

 a psocid, also called 

 the "death watch," 

 lives in chinks and crevices in houses and also makes a ticking 

 sound at night. 



The furs, feathers, and woollen clothes in our closets and 

 the carpets and rugs on our floors furnish abundant food for 

 various moths and small beetles, most of the latter being 



Figs. 46-48. Three deep sea fishes. 

 For explantions of the figures see p. xii. 



