524 NOISES OF INSECTS. 



this circumstance the humming-bird (^Macroglos^ stellatarum), which, 

 while it liovers over them, unfolding its long tongue, pilfers their sweets 

 without interrupting its song. Ti)e giant cock-roach {Blatta gigantea), 

 which abounds in old timber houses in the warmer parts of the world, makes 

 a noise when the family are asleep like a pretty smart rapping with the 

 knuckles — three or four sometimes appearing to answer each other. On 

 this account in the West Indies it is called the Drummer ; and they some- 

 times beat such a reveille, that only good sleepers can rest for them.^ As 

 the animals of this genus generally come forth in the night for the purpose 

 of feeding, this noise is probably connected with that subject. 



Insects also, at least many of the social ones, emit peculiar noises while 

 engaged in their various employments. If an ear be applied to a wasps 

 or humble-bees nest, or a bee-hive, a hum more or less intense may 

 always be perceived. Were I disposed to play upon your credulity, I 

 might tell you, with Goedart, that in every humble-bees' nest there is a 

 trumpeter, who early in the morning, ascending to its summit, vibrates his 

 wings, and sounding his trumpet for the spape of a quarter of an hour, 

 rouses the inhabitants to work ! But since Reaumur could never witness 

 this, I shall not insist upon your believing it, though the relator declares 

 that he had heard it with his ears, and seen it with his eyes, and had 

 called many to witness the vibrating and strepent wings of this trum- 

 peter humble-bee.- The blue sand-wasp (^ylmmophila ? cyanfo), which 

 at all other times is silent, when engaged in building its cells, emits a 

 singular but pleasing sound, which may be heard at ten or twelve yards' 

 distance.^ 



Some insects also are remarkable for a peculiar mode of calling, com- 

 manding, or giving an alarm. I have before mentioned the noise made 

 by the neuters or soldiers amongst the white ants, by which they keep 

 the laborers, who answer it by a hiss, upon the alert and to their work. 

 This noise, which is produced by striking any substance with their man- 

 dibles, Smeathman describes as a small vibrating sound, rather shriller and 

 quicker than the ticking of a watch. It could be distinguished, he says, 

 at the distance of three or four feet, and continued for a minute at a time 

 with very short intervals. When any one walks in a solitary grove, where 

 the covered ways of these insects abound, they give the alarm by a loud 

 hissing, which is heard at every step.^ — " When house-crickets are out," 

 says Mr. White, " and running about in a room in the night, if surprised 

 by a candle, they give two or three shrill notes, as it were for a signal to 

 their followers, that they may escape to their crannies and lurking-holes to 

 avoid danger."^ 



Under this head I shall consider a noise before alluded to, which has 

 been a cause of alarm and terror to the superstitious in all ages. You 

 will perceive that 1 am speaking of the death-watch — so called, because 

 it emits a sound resembling the ticking of a watch, supposed to predict the 

 death of some one of the family in the house in which it is heard. Thus 

 sings the muse of the witty Dean of St. Patrick on this subject: 



' Drury's Inserts, iii. Preface. » Lister's Gacdnrt, 244. Compare Reaum. vi. 30. 



' Bindley, Animal Bio^r. iii. l.st ed. 335. Mr. Westwood has also observed ihe same 

 peculiarity in Ammophila liirsuta whilst similarly engaged. 



* Fhilos. Trans 1781, 48. 38. » Nat. Hist. ii. 262. 



