ii6 HAUNTS AND HOBBIES 



among Europeans the little creature is always spoken of 

 as the " fish insect." 



The beetle confines his attention to woodwork, mostly 

 to the doors and door fi-ames. Into these, and also 

 occasionally into chairs and tables, he bores little 

 circular holes. As he bores he pushes out his borings ; 

 a tiny heap of wood dust on the floor below indicates 

 his presence : but for this it would be almost impossible 

 to discover where he is at work. As he bores, his jaws, 

 scraping away the wood, give out a rasping sound. 

 The sound is not loud, but in the midday stillness it is 

 very distinctly audible. 



The puzzle is to discover from whence it proceeds, for 

 as soon as one rises and moves about to ascertain the 

 beetle discontinues his labours, and the sound is no 

 longer heard. I was once over half an hour engaged in 

 such a search ; in the end I only discovered the place by 

 noticing the slight heap of wood dust on the floor at the 

 foot of one of the door posts. Looking carefully up- 

 wards along the door post, I found the small, round hole 

 from which the dust had fallen. A drop of oil caused 

 the little workman to appear. I found him to be about 

 half an inch in length, very slender, quite black in 

 colour, and in shape very much resembling a narrow 

 cylinder. I examined him through my magnifying-glass, 

 but the glass was not sufficiently powerful to display his 

 jaws clearly, nor consequently to enable me to ascertain 

 how his boring of the wood was effected. 



There are other dwellers in the house that do not 

 either often display themselves. The most numerous 

 are the bats and the rats. I shall discourse on the 



