LONDON INSECTS 81 



marks of Caterpillars' work everywhere, it ought to be 

 possible to make a large collection. 1 But, as nearly all 

 are night-fliers, there is not much chance of doing this 

 in the daytime only, and the powers that be are wisely 

 stern in their refusal to create the precedent which the 

 official abhors as Nature does a vacuum, by lending a 

 key of Kensington Gardens or granting leave to outstay 

 the closing hour ; and so the privilege of ' treacleing ' 

 trees in the only really satisfactory hunting-fields in 

 town is confined to palace footmen, policemen, and, 

 perhaps, the First Commissioner of Public Works. Less 

 favoured mortals are turned out of the garden with as 

 little hope of appeal as Adam and Eve, and if tempted 

 to cast one longing, lingering look behind, it is only to 

 see 



' The gate 

 With dreadful faces thronged,' 



capped with the blue helmets of the Metropolitan 

 police. 



We have, unfortunately, a great many more speci- 

 mens than we care for of one class of Moth the little 

 tinecv, the common Cloth Moth. It is too small 

 almost to be seen except in a good light, but possesses 

 a power, which an electric eel might envy, of galvanising 

 the portliest and most precise of good ladiesmaids or 



1 Among the insects caught actually in London by the winner of a 

 prize for Natural History given at a public school were the Leopard, 

 Goat, Ermine, Bufftip, Peppered, ' Willow Beauty,' and ' Brindled 

 Beauty ' Moths, and the Small Tortoiseshell, Peacock, and three sorts 

 of white Butterflies. The rare Alder Moth was caught within an easy 

 walk of Hyde Park Corner, on Wimbledon Common. 



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