i:^8 



NATURAL HISTORY. [cH. VIII. 



Strokes are sometimes so powerful as to make con- 

 siderable impression, especially if they fall on any 

 substance softer than wood. Mr. Derham tells us, 

 that he had two of these insects in a little box for 

 about three weeks, and he could make one of them 

 beat whenever he pleased, by imitating the insect, 

 ■which can be done by tapping with a nail upon th' 

 table ; it having become so familiarized as to an- 

 swer readily. The prevailing number of distinct 

 strokes which this insect of ill omen beats, is from 

 seven to nine or eleven times in quick succession ; 

 which very circumstance may, perhaps, still add, in 

 some degree, to the ominous character it bears 

 among the vulgar. The silence of night gives such 

 full value to the love-calls of these insects, that it 

 has caused vulgar and superstitious minds to sup- 

 pose that the death-tick is only heard at midnight. — 



" The wether's bell 

 Before the drooping flock tolled forth the knell, 

 The solemn death-watch clicked the hour she died !" 



A more curious instance of laborious industry is 

 furnished by the burying beetle. It was first re 



marked by M. Gleditsch, that dead moles and other 

 small animals, if laid on loose ground, quickly dis- 

 appeared. In order to ascertain the cause of such 

 a curious circumstance, he placed one in his garden, 

 and foui.d that on the third morning it was removed 



