MOTHS OF THE LIMBERLOST 



epicure! Like St. Francis, who preached a sermon to 

 the birds, I found me delivering myself of a lecture to 

 the squirrels, birds, and moths of Sunshine Hill. The 

 final summing up was, that the squirrel used his feet, 

 teeth, eyes and tail; that could be seen easily, and by 

 his actions it could be seen just as clearly that he used 

 his brain also. 



There was not a Thysbe in front of the lens, so picking 

 up a long cudgel I always carry afield, and going quietly 

 to surrounding thistles, I jarred them lightly with it, 

 and began rounding up the Hemaris family in the direc- 

 tion of the camera. The trick was a complete suc- 

 cess. Soon I had an exposure on two. After they had 

 faced the camera once, and experienced no injury, 

 like the birds, they accepted it as part of the land- 

 scape. The work was so fascinating, and the pictures 

 on the ground glass so worth while, that before I rea- 

 lized what I was doing, half a dozen large plates were 

 gone, and for this reason, work with the cardinals that 

 day ended at noon. This is why I feel that at times in 

 bird work the moths literally "thrust themselves" upon 

 me. 



I made a second effort with water colours, before I 

 secured these dainty little red-nosed creatures at their 

 feast of thistle nectar. When the first attempt was 

 dry, the reds and olive-greens of the moths were too dull 

 and so were the exquisite colours of the thistle heads 



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