World of the Dark 



meteors through the air, hovering for an instant over this 

 blossom, probing into the sweet depths of another, and then 

 dashing off again so quickly that the eye cannot follow them. 

 My friend, Henry Pryer, had a great bed of evening primroses in 

 his compound on the Bluff in Yokohama. Well I remember 

 standing with him before the flowers, and, as the light began to 

 fade upon the distant top of Fuji-no-yama, with net in hand 

 capturing the hawkmoths, which came eagerly trooping to the 

 spot. When it grew quite dark O-Chi-san held a Japanese 

 lantern aloft to help us to see where to make our strokes. A 

 dozen species became our spoil during those pleasant evenings. 

 Ah ! those nights in Japan ! Can I ever forget them ? 



Did you ever reflect upon the fact that the wings of many 

 moths, which lie concealed during the daytime, reveal their 

 most glorious coloring only after dark, when they are upon the 

 wing ? Take as an illustration, the splendid moths of the great 

 genus Catocala, the Afterwings, as we familiarly call them. The 

 fore wings are so colored as to cause them, when they are 

 quietly resting upon the trunks of trees in the daytime, to look 

 like bits of moss, or discolored patches upon the bark. They 

 furnish, in such positions, one of the most beautiful illustrations 

 of protective mimicry which can be found in the whole realm of 

 nature. The hind wings are completely concealed at such times. 

 The hind wings are, however, most brilliantly colored. In some 

 species they are banded with pink, in others with crimson; still 

 others have markings of yellow, orange, or snowy white on a 

 background of jet-black. One European species has bands of 

 blue upon the wings. These colors are distinctive of the species 

 to a greater or less extent. They are only displayed at night. 

 The conclusion is irresistibly forced upon us that the eyes of 

 these creatures are capable of discriminating these colors in the 

 darkness. We cannot do it. No human eye in the blackness of the 

 night can distinguish red from orange, or crimson from yellow. 

 The human eye is the greatest of all anatomical marvels, and the 

 most wonderfu piece of animal mechanism in the world, but 

 not all of power is lodged within it. There are other allied 

 mechanisms which have the power of responding to certain 

 forms of radiant energy to a degree which it does not possess. 



Let me commend to the study of my readers this world of the 



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