NOISES OF INSECTS. 381 



Some insects also are remarkable for a peculiar mode 

 oi calling, commanding, or giving an alarm. I have be- 

 fore mentioned the noise made by the neuters or soldiers 

 amongst the white ants, by which they keep the labour- 

 ers, who answer it by a hiss, upon the alert and to their 

 work*. This noise, which is produced by striking any 

 substance with their mandibles, Smeathman describes as 

 a small vibrating sound, rather shriller and quicker than 

 the ticking of a watch. It could be distinguished, he 

 says, at the distance of three or four feet, and continued 

 for a minute at a time with very short intervals. When 

 any one walks in a solitary grove, where the covered ways 

 of these insects abound, they give the alarm by a loud 

 hissing, which is heard at every step ^. — " When house- 

 crickets are out," says Mr. White, " and running about 

 in a room in the night, if surprised by a candle they give 

 two or three shrill notes, as it were for a signal to their 

 followers, that they may escape to their crannies and 

 lurking-holes to avoid danger *=." 



Under this head I shall consider a noise before alluded 

 to ^, which has been a cause of alarm and terror to the 

 superstitious in all ages. You will perceive that I am 

 speaking of the death-watch — so called, because it emits 

 a sound resembling the ticking of a watch, supposed to 

 predict the death of some one of the family in the house 

 in which it is heard. Thus sings the muse of the witty 

 Dean of St. Patrick on this subject : 



" A wood-worm 



That lies in old wood, like a hare in her form : 



' See above, p. 41. " Philos. Trans. 1781. 48. 38. 



" Nat. Hist. ii. 262. ^ Vol. I. p. 30. 



