310 



NOISES OP INSECTS. 



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." 1 



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 : 



ts A wood- worm 



That lies in old wood, like a hare in her form : 



With teeth or with claws it will hite or will scratch, 



And chambermaids christen this worm a death-watch ; 



Because like a watch it always cries click ; 



Then woe be to those in the house who are sick ! 



For, sure as a gun, they will give up the ghost, 



If the maggot cries click, when it scratches the post ; 



But a kettle of scalding hot water ejected, 



Infallibly cures the timber affected : 



The omen is broken, the danger is over, 



The maggot will die, and the sick will recover." 



To add to the effect of this noise, it is said to be made only 

 when there is a profound silence in an apartment, and every 

 one is still. 



Authors were formerly not agreed concerning the insect 

 from which this sound of terror proceeded, some attributing 

 it to a kind of wood-louse, as I lately observed, and others to 

 a spider; but it is a received opinion now, adopted upon 

 satisfactory evidence, that it is produced by some little beetles 

 belonging to the timber-boring genus Anobium, Swam- 

 merdam observes, that a small beetle, which he had in his 

 collection, having firmly fixed its fore legs, and put its in- 

 flexed head between them, makes a continual noise in old 

 pieces of wood, walls, and ceilings, which is sometimes so 

 loud, that upon hearing it, people have fancied that hob- 

 goblins, ghosts, or fairies were wandering around them. 2 

 Evidently this was one of the death-watches. Latreille ob~ 



i Nat. Hist. ii. '262. 



2 Bill. Nat. Ed. Hill, i. 125. 



