NOTES, CAPTURES, ETC. 237 



its sound, the descriptions being so correct that when I first 

 heard the little rapping noise I was sure it must be the true 

 death-watch; the sound is very distinct, and may be heard in a 

 room where people are moving and talking ; it consists of about 

 six or eight raps in quick succession, then an interval of perhaps 

 ten minutes, more or less, before another set of raps is repeated. 

 The Death-watch, like most other insects, is more vigorous in 

 warm than in cool weather ; it appears about the end of May, and 

 continues, I think, until the end of July. About forty years ago 

 I had the opportunity to capture several of these little beetles, 

 which I kept in small cardboard boxes, where they soon proved 

 themselves bond fide death-watches by rapping against the inside 

 of the box; they are very manageable and interesting insects; 

 when allowed to come out of the box they moved about quietly, 

 rapping at intervals under my eye ; to produce the sound the 

 insect first raises itself on its legs in a peculiar manner, and then 

 strikes vigorously (on whatever substance it stands) with the front 

 of the head. My Anobiums laid eggs from which young larvae 

 were hatched. It is stated that the Death-watch will respond to 

 an imitation of their call made by tapping with the finger-nail ; 

 I am not sure that this is the case, but I really think it is a fact 

 (from my own experience). Some time ago I heard a tapping 

 which I presume must be made by another species of this tribe of 

 insects, the sound not quite so loud, and the number of beats 

 more extended — I should say double the number made by the 

 present Anobium, with intervals similar. I am sorry to add that 

 circumstances prevented my searching for the insects. — G. R. 

 Websdale; August 11, 1884. 



The Death-watch. — For the last two or three years I have 

 spent some weeks every summer at an old farm-house at Felix- 

 stowe, generally going down in June. The house was erected, I 

 should say, about the year 1550, and is one of those massively 

 built old timber structures which were plentifully erected about 

 that period. I had always been very anxious to discover the 

 "death-watch," and consequently was delighted to hear it for the 

 first time upon my visit to the old house in the summer of 1882. 

 Carefully noting the direction from which the sounds came I 

 searched for the beetles, and almost immediately found one upon 

 a ledge of the timber. I should state the beetles generally com- 

 menced rapping at dusk, and did not keep up the sound long, as 



