April 10, 1885.] 



♦ KNOWLEDGE ♦ 



305 



hailed by the birds with evident sigQS of joy. " Of their 

 fet'lings he seemed to be perfectly aware, and he made his 

 reply to them in a siaiiUr strain. Their mutual con- 

 gratulstiDns being over, they all three set to work." 



As an instance of seemingly couctrted action between 

 animals of ditlereut species, Jumbo, the Newfoundland to 

 which I have previously referred, is on excellent terms 

 with two Celts who li\e in the same house. Jumbo is too 

 heavy to jump upon the table, but he has beiu observed 

 watching below while the cats have sprung on to it, and 

 thrown down fish to him, which the three li:\ve afterwards 

 discussed together. 



According to Romanes, dogs communicate with one 

 another by gesture and tones of barking ; of dogs above the 

 average of canine intelligence he believes that " the gesture 

 they invariably employ is a contact of heads with a motion 

 between a rub and a butt. It is quite ditlerent from any- 

 thing that occurs in play, and is always followed by a deti- 

 nite course of action." * He illustrates this point by the 

 following example. " A Skye terrier (not quite pure) was 

 asleep in the room where I was, while his son lay upon a 

 wall which separates the lawn from the high road. The 

 young dog when aloue would never attack a strange one, 

 but was a keen fighter when in company with his father. 

 Upon the present occasion a large mongrel passed along 

 the road, and shortly afterwards the old dog awoke, and 

 went sleepily downstairs. When he arrived upon the door- 

 step his son ran up to him and made the sign just described. 

 His whole manner immediately altered to that of high 

 animation. Clearing the wall together the two animils ran 

 down the road as terriers only can when jmrsuing an 

 enemy. I watched them for a mile and a half, within 

 which distance their speed never abated, although the 

 object of their pursuit had not from the first been in sight." 

 Tlie following interesting case shows how a dog commiiui- 

 cated news of disaster to its master, and afterwards aided 

 him to avert its consequences. Mr. A. H. Browning, after 

 looking at a litter of young pigs, inadvertently left the 

 door of the sty open so that all the pigs escaped. His 

 attention was called to his dog, which approached in a great 

 state of excitement, 'iiot barking (he seldom barks), liut 

 whining and performing all sorts of antics (in a human 

 subject, Mr. Browning observes, " I should have said 

 ' gesticulating ' "). The herdman and Mr. Browning re- 

 turned to the sty ; they caught but one |(ig and put him 

 back ; no sooner had they done so than the dog ran after 

 each pig in succession, brought him back to the sty by the 

 ear, and then r'au after another until the whole number 

 were again housed. 



OUR HOUSEHOLD INSECTS. 



By E. A. BuTLEE. 



COLEOPTERA {Coniinued). 



AN insect, allied to Anohiuni domestinim, and formerly 

 referred to the same genus, but now known as Xesto- 

 bium iesseUaium, has often been a source of terror to the 

 superstitious, by whom it is known as the Death Watch. 

 It is a stout, reddish brown beetle (Fig. 1.), sprinkled with 

 small patches of pale hairs ; but,. while very similar in shape, 

 it is a great deal larger than any of the Anobia proptr, 

 sometimes attaining a length of ]^ inch and a corresponding 

 obesity. 



The ticking, or clicking, noise that is sometimes heard in 

 old houses, and has so often been considered to portend the 



* " Animal Intelligence," p. 445. 



death of some inhabitant of the dwelling within the year, is 

 caused by these insects striking the wooden walls of their 

 burrows with their hard head or jaws, and is generally 

 supposed to be a love-call, for when one has made some four 

 or live taps in quick succession, it pauses, and is imme- 

 diately answered by another in some other quarter. The 

 tapping is not sufficiently loud to attract much attention in 

 the daytime, when so many other noises arc going on ; but 



Fig. 1. — Xostobium tessellatum. 



in the stillness of the night, when every sound that does 

 occur seems magnified to an enormous degree, this regular 

 succession of knocks, proceeding from no apparent physical 

 cause, might, on the principle of omHr. iynoliuH pro miri/ico, 

 easily awake appichension in the minds of the ignorant and 

 superstitious, already by liabit accustomed to look out for 

 "omens," " visitations," " warnings," and such like; and it 

 is, perhaps, not altogether to be wondeied at that an'.ocgst 

 those engaged in nursing the sick, who, from the stillness 

 of the sick-room, and the fact of their btiug night-watchers, 

 would o-enerally be the nv>tt likely to meet with such ex- 

 periences, some should have seen in these mysterious tap- 

 pings a confirmation of their own anxious forebodings with 

 respect to the loved ones of their charge. But the applica- 

 tion of a little practical common sense soon dispels these 

 illusions, and demonstrates the very material nature of the 

 omens, or, as Swift quaintly puts it : — 



A kettle of scalding hot water ejected 

 Infalliljly cores tlie timber affeeteil ; 

 The omen is broken, the danger is over, 

 The maggot will (lie, and the sick will recover. 



In the Philosophical Transactions for 1G98 is a curious 

 paper entitled, "An Account of the Sjarabjuus Galeatus 

 Pulsator, or the Death Watch, taken August, IGO.'), by 

 Mr. Benjamin Allen." It is accompanied by an enor- 

 mously magnified figure of the insect, and from this and 

 the description, it is evident that the Scarab.-eus is none 

 other than our present acquaintance, and the article appears 

 to be the earliest detailed scientific account of the insect. 

 The writer commences in a somewhat spasmodic and incon- 

 sequential style : — " The second Animal I observ'd is a 

 Death Watch : I have taken some before this, it is that 

 which makes a noise resembling exactly that of a Watch ; 

 it is faithfully tlie very same, and liv'd Four Days with 

 me, beating exactly, for I took two, I suppose one was the 

 Female, that is only conjecture." lie is a little bit 

 sceptical as to the prophetic character of the tappings, 

 saying ; — " This small Beetle . . . being rarely heard, and 

 not known, has obtain'd the name of a Death Watch, 

 which yet I have known to be heard by many, where no 

 mortality follow'd, and particularly by mytelf, who have 

 taken Two of the same, Seven years since, without any 

 Death following that Year." A quarter of a century later, 

 another observer, Mr. Hugh Stackhouse, commmucates a 

 further note on the subject, wisely abstaining, however, from 



