138 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 the 

 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 found that on the third morning it was removed 



