418 



THE HUMMING-BIRD MOTH. 



the moth has been given to it because the caterpillar is known to feed on the common field 

 convolvulus or bindweed, and it is sometimes known by the title of Convolvulus or Bindweed 

 Hawk -moth. The caterpillar is mostly green, spotted and splashed with black and brown, 

 and having a row of oblique stripes on each side. Generally the stripes are yellow, and 

 edged with black, but they are sometimes wholly of the bolder color, while the entire 

 caterpillar sometimes assumes a brownish hue. Upon the end of the tail there is a sharp 

 curved horn, quite harmless, and whose use is at present unknown. The color of the wings 

 is mostly wood-brown, checkered with ash, gray, and white, and the abdomen is ringed with 

 broad bands of rose-color and narrow stripes of black, while down its centre runs a broad 

 streak of gray. 



OLEANDER HAWK MOTH. Sphinx nertt. With caterpillar and larva. 



Of several other fine insects belonging to this genus, we mention the PRIVET HAWK-MOTH 

 (Sphinx ligustri), and the PINE HAWK-MOTH (Sphinx pinastri). The latter has been chosen 

 for an illustration on account of the nice pattern with which the caterpillar is inscribed. (See 

 page 417.) 



The beautiful OLEANDER HAWK-MOTH, which is here represented of the natural size, 

 belongs to another genus, in which the caterpillar has the power of prolonging or withdrawing 

 the head and neck like the proboscis of an elephant, a faculty which has earned for another 

 insect the name of elephant hawk-moth. 







OUR next illustrated example is the HUMMING-BIRD MOTH. Although not gifted with 

 the brilliant hues which decorate so many of the Hawk-moths, it is a more interesting creature 



