306 HUMMING-BIRD MOTH. 



two last, but more interesting, perhaps, than either in its 

 habits and associations, is the hawk -moth called the "Humming- 

 bird.""* This name is derived from the vibratory sound emitted 

 by the wings of this pretty insect, as it hangs suspended, 

 morning and evening, above the tlowers, of which the honeyed 



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treasures, however deeply hidden, are never inaccessible to its 

 prying tongue. Not even the long, narrow flagons of Marvel 

 of Peru, or trumpet honeysuckle, can protect their delicious 

 nectar from the long, pliant trunk of fas humming -lird hawk, 

 who delights, also, in the assembled honey-cups of composite 

 flowers likewise in sweet geraniums, tempted by which, it 

 often commits its harmless robberies in greenhouse as well as 

 garden. The anterior wings of this curious moth are dusky 

 brown, striated and barred; the hinder, white or rusty yellow; 



and the bodv. which is short, is variegated at the sides with 



i ' 



small tufts of black and white, finished by a large black bush 

 at its extremity. The " humming-bird " is seen frequently in 

 most parts of England, but especially near the sea-side, from 

 May to October. 



A word now for the hawk-moth "Death's head/'t to whom, 

 perhaps, we ought to have given precedence over all the 

 above, on account of his yet superior size and the dark 

 celebrity of his name ; but though called a ' ' hawk," and long- 

 classed with the sphinxes, he is not considered now as belong- 



* MacroglossaStt'llutariDit. (Vignette.) \Aclierontiaatropos. (Frontispiece.) 



