240 OBSERVATIONS ON INSECTS. 



In this last part particularly, the maggots may often 

 be found secreted. I find no effectual means of 

 checking this annoyance, except that of often taking 

 the books down and thoroughly brushing them.* 



DEATH-WATCH. f 



I WAS once staying in an old house, where these 

 insects prevailed to such a degree, that, during the 

 spring, the walls resounded the whole day long with 

 their continual rappings. It is generally supposed 

 that the noise they make is intended as a call to the 

 other sex ; and it is curious to observe one of them 

 labouring, as it were, to make itself heard. Raising 

 itself on its hinder legs, it beats forcibly on the wall 

 on which it stands with the fore part of the head, 

 giving seven or eight strokes at a time in pretty 

 quick succession. These are repeated at intervals ; 

 and, where the insects are numerous, after a while 

 become irksome to the ear. The noise exactly re- 

 sembles that made by gently tapping the finger-nail 

 against the hard surface of a table ; indeed, upon 



* Sir Thomas Phillips, in a communication to the British Asso- 

 ciation in 1837, made mention of several insects that had attacked 

 the books in his library, but these are stated to have been princi- 

 pally Anobia, which only devoured the paste used in binding, and 

 which he recommended in consequence to be mixed up with a 

 solution of corrosive sublimate. He makes no mention of the 

 Ptinus fur, which, as above stated, attacks the binding itself, as 

 well as other parts of the books. Corrosive sublimate can hardly 

 be applied in this latter case. See Report of Brit. Assoc. vol. vi. 

 (Notices of Commnn. to the Sections) p. 99. 



t Anobinum tessellatum, Fab. Steph. Man. p. 201. 



