140 A WINGLESS DEATH-WATCH. 



whiter and more slender, having a red mouth, and yellow eyes. 

 It lives in old books, the paper on walls, collections of insects, 

 and dried plants, and is extremely agile in its movements, 

 darting by jerks into dark corners for concealment. It does 

 not like to run straight forward without resting every half 

 second, as if to listen or look about for its pursuer, and at 

 such resting times it is easily taken. . The ticking noise is 

 made by the insect beating against the wood with its head ; 

 and it is supposed by some to be peculiar to the female, and 

 connected with the laying of her eggs."* 



The ticking of this apterous death-watch, instead of being 

 repeated at intervals a certain number of times (usually from 

 seven to eleven) as that of the beetle, is continued, like a 

 veritable watch, without intermission. 



Such is the living main-spring of the death-watch when 

 taken from out its wooden case ; and though all its terrors 

 vanish on being brought to light, it is easy enough to ac- 

 count for their origin in connection with place, time, and 

 circumstance. 



Most heard in old (perhaps haunted) houses, proceeding 

 from wainscot or from bed's head, perhaps from picture-frame 

 of grim old portrait, as if the "tick, tick," of the invisible 

 time-piece issued verily from the laced fob-pocket of some 

 buried ancestor; or heard, possibly, with creeping awe, to 

 proceed, "tick, tick, tick," from the elm-wood of a coffin 



* ' Insect Architecture.' 



