126 THE RING OF NATURE 



paler eggs of the eyed hawk, and on the privet the 

 equally handsome pledges of the privet hawk. 

 The hawk-moth caterpillar is at once recognized 

 by its hairless skin and single tail like the horn of 

 the rhinoceros, but at the opposite end of the beast. 

 When the privet hawk runs towards its full four 

 inches of length, its coloration is a marvel of 

 ingenuity. The apple-green of its otherwise con- 

 spicuous bulk is broken by seven oblique white 

 stripes like the white midribs of privet leaves, 

 shaded with parallel dashes of violet-purple, so as 

 to appear to stand out from the green as midribs 

 really do. 



I sometimes dream of caterpillars a yard long. 

 They do not exceed in size those we know, by 

 more than the hawk-moth caterpillar exceeds 

 the tortrix. A friend of mine who had never seen 

 anything larger than the drinker was astonished 

 to see as he stood in a potato field a beast in the 

 likeness of a caterpillar, but five inches long. It 

 was smudged with V markings in green and brown 

 and violet and black and roughed all over like 

 goose-skin, and it took its own presence in an 

 English field in the calmest manner possible, 

 munching the potato leaves with the usual cater- 

 pillar gusto. A second beast of the same size 

 allowed itself to be picked out from the brown and 

 green potato leaves, and my friend was induced to 

 realize that it was no dream, but that he had found 

 two death's-head caterpillars. 



We can scarcely mention the puss-moth without 



