THE FLORAL WORLD AND GARDEN GUIDE. 229 
extravagant, but I deliberately record my opinion that if this 
glorious creature were really abundant, bee-keeping would be im- 
possible. It isa fact full of meaning for the Darwinites, and per- 
haps also for the lovers of honey. 
As to the speaking powers of Acherontia atropos, its voice is 
sometimes a mere snap, or like a series of electric sparks; at other 
times it squeaks like a mouse, and sometimes its voice exactly re- 
sembles the horrid sound that occurs when a cork is cut with a 
knife that has been in the same parish as pickles, and has perhaps 
imbibed a suspicion of acidity. How the sound is produced nobody 
DEATH’S-HEAD MOTH (Acherontia atropos). 
knows, and the source of it is the more difficult to discover because 
the caterpillar, the chrysalis, and the moth are all equally vocal, 
though to a certainty it has no vocal organs proper, and must produce 
its cries by some such means as the cricket on the hearth. Kirby 
and Spence, Reaumur, Huber, and Reesel testify to the utterance of 
various sounds. Mr. Edward Newman speaks of having  repeat- 
edly” heard it (‘‘ British Moths,” p. 6), and adds, ‘“‘ We have also 
observed that the chrysalis squeaks when about to change to a moth ; 
but the sound produced by the perfect insect is the most remark- 
able.’ The Rev. W. Houghton, in his charming ‘ Sketches of 
British Insects,” says he has on two or three occasions heard its 
peculiar squeak, “but could not make out how the sound was pro- 
duced.” 
August. 
