34 PTINUS. 



gaged in the more important cares of providing 

 the immediate necessaries of life should have 

 either leisure or inclination to investigate with 

 philosophic exactness the causes of a particular 

 sound: yet it must be allowed to be a very sin- 

 gular circumstance that an animal so common 

 should not be more universally known, and the 

 peculiar noise which it occasionally makes be 

 more universally understood. It is chiefly in 

 the advanced state of spring that this alarming 

 little animal commences its sound, which is no 

 other than the call or signal by which the male 

 and female are led to each other, and which may 

 be considered as analogous to the call of birds; 

 though not owing to the voice of the insect, but to 

 its beating on any hard substance with the shield 

 or fore-part of its head. The prevailing number of 

 distinct strokes which it beats is from seven to 

 nine or eleven ; which very circumstance may 

 perhaps still add in some degree to the ominous 

 character which it bears among the vulgar. These 

 sounds or beats are given in pretty quick suc- 

 cession, and are repeated at uncertain intervals ; 

 and in old houses where the insects are numerous, 

 may be heard at almost every hour of the day ; 

 especially if the weather be warm. The sound 

 exactly resembles that which may be made by 

 beating moderately hard with the nail on a table. 

 The insect is of a colour so nearly resembling that 

 of decayed wood, viz. an obscure greyish brown, 

 that it may for a considerable time elude the 

 search of the enquirer. Jt is about a quarter of 



