LEPIDOPTERA. 



79 



honeyed measures from long flower-tubes. The Death's- 

 head, however, has a short, thick tongue, and when this 

 moth wishes for honey, it enters bees' hives and robs the 

 insects of it, or else, perhaps, feeds on the juices of very 

 ripe fruit. This magnihcent moth is undeservedly in ill 

 repute on account of the very curious and conspicuous 

 markings on its thorax, representing a human skull 

 with thigli-bones crossed beneath, which superstitious 

 people regard with horror, as they suppose the insect 



Larva of Privet Hawk-Motii {Splu/u. Liya^in,. 



presages death. Another curious fact about this Hawk- 

 moth is its faculty of uttering a cry or squeak like that 

 of a mouse, or the creaking of cork ; this adds to the 

 horror with which it is regarded. I have on two or 

 three occasions heard this peculiar squeak, but could 

 not make out how the sound was produced. I believe 

 the question is still a problem. According to a writer 

 in Notes and Queines, there is a quaint superstition that 

 the Death's-head Moth has been very common in White- 



