268 
DEATH-WATCH. 
to be careful not to confound this animal, which is 
the real death-watch of the vulgar, with a much 
smaller insect of a very different genus, which makes 
a sound like the ticking of a watch, that is generally 
continued for a considerable time without intermis- 
sion. This is the termes pulsatorium of Linnaeus. 
If the finger nail or the head of a pin is struck 
upon a table within the hearing of a death-watch, it 
will frequently answer, and continue to do so at in- 
tervals for a considerable time. Dr. Derham assures 
us, that he frequently amused himself in this way 
with a male and female which he kept together in a 
box : by imitating their noise, he made them beat 
whenever he pleased. These little things are not 
without their mutual attachments. They continued 
quietly in their prison for about three weeks, when 
one of them died ; and the other, unable to bear the 
confinement without its companion, gnawed through 
the box and escaped. 
