THE DEATH'S-HEAD MOTH. 131 



correspondent phantoms sheeted corpse and shrouded ske- 

 leton start into lifeless motion before the glaring eye. Such, 

 as seen and heard through the magnifying haze of ignorance and 



D O v O O 



twilight, or heard onlv in the dead stillness of the midnight 



D ' t/ D 



hour, are the death's-head moth and the death-watch beetle. 



Let us now inspect them in a calmer and clearer manner. 



First, for the Death's -head the Sphinx or Aclierontia Atro- 

 jjos of the entomologist. And here, in the largest of British 

 moths, we have a beautiful insect of richly variegated plumage, 

 bird -like in magnitude the "wandering bird" of Poland. 



In the upper wings, which, when expanded, cover an extent 

 of nearly five inches, the prevailing hues are very dark, but 

 elegantly disposed in waves and shades of brown and black, 

 broken by a few lighter clouds, and one small white spot near 

 the centre. The secondary pinions, of less sombre colouring, are 

 of a deep ochreous yellow, barred with black ; a livery in which 

 the massive body is also attired. The head and thorax are 

 dark, and it is on the back of the latter that the insect bears 

 its dreaded badge, the death's head, to which it owes its name, 

 figured in yellowish grey upon a sable ground.* 



The power possessed by the death's-head of emitting sound 

 (a gift rarely, if at all in any other instance, bestowed upon its 

 race) gives to this singular moth another fancifully imputed 

 attribute of the supernatural; and the character of its voice, 

 if voice it may be called, loud, shrill, and wailing, invest.- 



* See Frontispiece lo Vol. II. 



