ORDER IV. MOTHS AND BUTTERFLIES. 191 



can travelers are constantly visiting the transatlantic coun- 

 tries, and may meet with this beautiful but much maligned 

 insect. 



It is a large Hawk-moth, with yellow wings variegated 

 with black, and on the thorax it bears a mark which some- 

 what resembles a human skull — on which account it is 

 called the Death' s-iiead Hawk-moth. It first attracted 

 attention during the prevalence of a severe and fatal epi- 

 demic, and of course nothing more was necessary than its 

 appearance at such a time to induce an ignorant people to 

 believe it the veritable prophet and forerunner of death. 

 A curate in Bretagne, France, made a most horrible and 

 fear-exciting description of this animal, describing the very 

 loud and dreadful sound which it emitted as a sort of lam- 

 entation for the awful calamity which was coming on the 

 earth. 



This is but another proof that, were the great mass of the 

 people better educated in Entomolog}^, they would escape 

 much imposition, and avoid much imaginary suffering, and 

 much real but unnecessary fear of the harmless creatures 

 around them. This moth has no mouth to bite with, and 

 is no more injurious to vegetation than the others of its 

 species. The sound it produces is very much like that 

 made by mice, but has a more pitiful tone, and is much 

 louder, if you put it in a box or hold it between your fin- 

 gers. Any one may determine the origin of the sound, 

 however, by uncoiling its proboscis and stretching it out 

 with a pin, when all sound ceases at once ; but let the ani- 

 mal coil up its proboscis again, and it immediately com- 

 mences rubbing it against the glassy membrane beneath it, 

 and the sound begins again. 



The caterpillar of this moth, when full grown, is about 

 four inches long, of a yellowish color with black spots, and 

 oblique green stripes upon each side, and is found princi- 

 pally, in the mouth of July, in England on the jasmine ; in 



