THE GHOST MOTH. 279 



tor, considering it as a spectrelike action, named it 

 the " ghost moth." 



The fern owl, but chiefly, I conjecture, the 

 larger bats, are the creatures that have caused me 

 to experience at times both envy and regret, when 

 I have observed scattered in some woodland path, 

 amidst the fragments of their nightly banquet, the 

 relics of such beautiful insects as the emperor of 

 the woods, the verdigris moth, and twenty other 

 rare insects, to be obtained only after the patience 

 of years, or fortune of the hour ; and yet our merci- 

 less birds devour these choice dainties without com- 

 punction or regard. This ghost moth discharges 

 her eggs in a very singular manner, and frequently 

 immediately upon capture, not deliberately pro- 

 truding them, but dismissing them from the oviduct 

 in rapid succession, until it is exhausted, with a 

 slight elastic force, that conveys them clear from 

 the abdomen. They are perfectly dry and unad- 

 hesive. 



It requires more than usual delicate management 

 to preserve an uninjured specimen of the male of 

 this species, as the slightest touch robs the wings of 

 the fine scaly plumage which is affixed to their film 

 or substance by an extreme point, as is the case with 

 most others of our moths, but in this instance so 

 loosely that a very gentle friction rubs it off. The 

 plumage which covers the wings and bodies of many 

 of our lepidopterous insects is variously coloured, 

 and, like the feathers of birds, gives them their 

 splendour : in the butterflies I have not observed 



