NOTES ON THE LEPIDOPTERA OP BANFF. 13 



fight any. How then? it may be asked by some who may be unaccustomed 

 to entomological pursuits and with insect hunting. Why, my answer is, simply 

 by surrounding them, to be sure, as Pat did his foes, and then storing them 

 all safely into my collecting- case, without either a blackened eye or a broken 

 limb. O happy, happy Crispin! None but the persevering deserves to be 

 rewarded, how wellj do I yet remember, although it is long years ago, 

 finding about this same spot the fragments of a species of this sort! and how 

 oft have I looked, and looked, and searched the place for a perfect specimen 

 since then, but all in vain until the present instance! no wonder then that I 

 should feel a little overjoyed, and somewhat elevated at my good luck at last. 



But it may be that some of ray southern brother naturalists may laugh at 

 my foolishness in exhibiting such childish glee over what they may be able 

 to term quite a common species. Well, smile away my friends. O how 

 I glory in your mirth. 'Tis mine to love to see a merry countenance. But, 

 my dear friends, believe me, and see you bear the truth I am about to tell 

 you in your remembrances, namely, that although they may be quite an 

 abundant species with you, they are very, very far from being so with us, 

 in fact they are very rare. Another, I am credibly informed, was taken at M. 

 Duff, also during the present season, by a servant girl belonging to Mr. W. 

 Gregen, teacher there, but the hand that grasped it not being accustomed to 

 finger such fragile ware, crushed it to atoms, rendering it thereby perfectly 

 useless. 



The Humming-bird Sphinx, (Macroglossa stellatarum.) — Towards evening 

 of a very stormy day, a specimen of this Moth sought, by beating against a 

 window, and obtained shelter from the then warring elements in a house in 

 town; next morning it was secured, and is now in my collection, and to have 

 a finer or a more complete specimen no mortal man, especially a poor one, 

 could desire. This species is also very uncommon here. 



The Vapourer Moth, {Orgyia antiqua.) — I have seen it recorded, but where 

 I do not now remember, that the Vapourer is a very common insect; it may 

 be so in some places, but I must deny its being such with us, or in this 

 quarter; two specimens, a male and a female, are all that I have met with 

 during all my entomological peregrinations here, and these have neither been few 

 nor far between, and have now been continued for the space of twenty long years. 



The Unicorn Sphinx, {Sphinx convolvuU.) — 'A most beautiful individual of 

 this pretty Moth was captured a few days ago in a garden in town ; it is now 

 in my collection, and is the largest I have ever seen, and the prettiest marked; 

 the body measures nearly three inches, the proboscis more than five, and the 

 wings expand to above six. Other two, one of which is now in the collection 

 of the gentleman already named, were taken in M. Duff a few weeks previous 

 to the one above mentioned. This species is only of casual occurrence here. 



The Emperor Moth, {Saturnia Pavonia-minor.) — Although I have never as yet 

 had the good luck to meet with an Emperor, either Scotch, English, Irish, 

 or French, yet I believe that the formei*, not to speak of the others, is to 



