NOISES OF INSECTS. 885 
but pleasing sound, which may be heard at ten or twelve 
yards distance?. 
Some insects also are remarkable for a peculiar mode 
of calling, commanding, or giving an alarm. I have be- 
fore mentioned the noise made by the neuters or soldiers 
amongst the white ants, by which they keep the labour- 
ers, who answer it by a hiss, upon the alert and to their 
work. ‘This noise, which is produced by striking any 
substance with their mandibles, 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 I 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: 
@ Bingley, Animal Biogr. iii. 1st Ed. 335. » See above, p. 41. 
€ Philos. Trans. 1781. 48. 38. 4 Nat. Hist. ii. 262. 
© Vox. I. 4th Ed. p. 36. 
VOL. Il. 2¢ 
