Jos. A. Kidd.

Hull.

The Death-Watch (Vol. v., p. 537.).—A good account of this small insect will be found in the second volume of the Introduction to Entomology by Messrs. Kirby and Spence. A chapter is devoted to the "Noises produced by Insects."

"In old houses, where these insects abound, they may be heard in warm weather during the whole day. The noise is produced by raising the head, and striking the hard mandibles against wood.

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

——————————'a wood worm[[3]]

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

With teeth or with claws it will bite 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 injected,

Infallibly cures the timber affected:

The omen thus broken, the danger is over,

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

The kettle of scalding hot water is also very useful in houses infested with ants or black-beetles.

Wm. Yarrell.

Footnote 3:[(return)]

A small beetle, the Anobium tesselatum of Fabricius.

The Query of M. W. B. reminds me of a family bereavement that followed the visit of this insect to my father's homestead. The ticking was heard in a closet, which opened out of the drawing-room. I first discovered it; and was struck with the fact that it occasionally altered the interval which formed the standard of the beats, though with one standard the beats remained punctually uniform. On examination, I found a very tiny insect, in shape like an elongated spider, whose "hind leg" kept beat with the sound; so I suppose that member to have been the instrument by which the ticking was effected. The family bereavement that ensued was the total extinction of the last dying embers of our faith in this world-famed omen; for unhappily, in this instance, no death ensued in our domestic circle.

C. Mansfield Ingleby.