NOISES OF INSECTS. 385 



t)f callings communding^ or giving an alarm. I have 

 before mentioned the noise made by the neuters or sol- 

 diers amongst tlie white ants, by which they keep the 

 labourers, 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, Smeath- 

 nian describes as a small vibrating sound, rather shriller 

 and quicker than the ticking of a watch. It could be 

 dif^tinguished, 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 al- 

 luded 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 tickingof a watch, sup- 

 posed 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. iTSl . 48. 38. 



' Nat. Hint. ii. 26?. " Vol. I. 2d Ed, 31. 



VOL. II. 2 C 



