254 CHAPTER XXXIV. 



unpleasant, experto crede, provided you do not have the 

 stalks too thick and too dry. Still " avoir du foin 

 dans les souliers " is one thing, and to have Beadstraw 

 in your socks is quite another. 



Some of these Sphinxes are hardly to be told from 

 Humming birds when on the wing. Bates, writing of 

 a Brazilian species (M. Titan) says that it was only 

 after many days' experience that he learnt to distin- 

 guish one from the other. Not only the natives, he 

 says, but even educated white men, firmly believe that 

 this moth changes into a Humming bird, in fact that 

 the two creatures are one and the same. 



The Stellatarum does not sit and sulk on a railing 

 like a good many moths, he bustles about busily, so 

 long as there is light to see the way from one flower 

 to another. He is not silly enough to commit suicide 

 in a candle, nor greedy enough to be caught gorging 

 on a sugared tree trunk ; he can even resist the temp- 

 tation of rotten apples soaked in rum I When other 

 moths are indulging in these luxuries he has retired 

 to rest in the crevice of a rock. Though his appetite 

 is good, he must be called abstemious : in fact, to 

 judge by the pace of his flight, he must keep himself in 

 perfect training, whereas his close relatives, the ple- 

 thoric Burnets (Zygcena), can scarcely carry their large 

 abdomens from a scabious to a thistle top. It is not 

 surprising that this brisk little insect should be 

 regarded as lucky, and receive the title of " Bonaven- 

 tura." His scientific name, " Long tongue of the 

 Stellates " or Madder family (on which the larva feeds) 

 may be appropriate enough ; but if I had to baptize 

 the moth, I should be disposed to give him some such 

 name as " Faustus " or " Hilaris " or " Lretus." 



