THE BUTTERFLY HUNTERS, 1 39 



I do not think you will feel as much interest just now in 

 this division of Lepidoptera as you did in the butterflies, 

 or Papilionts. The moths are very beautiful, but it is 

 not so easy for such boys as you are to capture them, as 

 they do not fly in the warm sunshine, but creep out after 

 nightfall. You will now and then find one nestled in a 

 dark corner under some leaf or behind the window shut- 

 ters, and in going about among bushes I have often dis- 

 turbed some old fellow who had settled down cosily to 

 sleep away the day, and sent him flying out into the 

 sunlight. In cases like this they are easily caught, for 

 they cannot see well in the daytime, and fly blindly this 

 way and that. Moths are divided into two great classes, — 

 Hawk-moths, or Sphinxes, and Moths, or Phalaenae. These 

 two classes are subdivided into many smaller classes, in 

 regard to which nearly all naturalists differ in opinion. It 

 is unnecessary for you to learn all these sub-divisions at 

 present. I shall only tell you the names and, as far as I 

 can, the habits of a few of the more common kinds and 

 of some of the largest and most beautiful varieties. 



" No doubt you have all heard about the troublesome 

 little moths that destroy our fur caps and cloth coats, but 

 perhaps you do not know that the moth which lives upon 

 woollen cloth is a different variety from that which eats 

 the furs. They all belong to the genus Tinea. These 

 little creatures are very small, and there is nothing es- 



