ii4 OUR INSECT FRIENDS AND FOES 



precisely like the same actions of humming- 

 birds. It was only after many days' experience 

 that I learnt to distinguish one from another 

 when on the wing. This resemblance has 

 attracted the notice of the natives, all of whom, 

 even the educated whites, firmly believe that 

 one is transmutable into the other. They have 

 observed the metamorphosis of caterpillars into 

 butterflies, and think it not at all more wonderful 

 that a moth should change into a humming-bird. 

 The resemblance between the hawk moth and 

 the humming-bird is certainly very curious, 

 and strikes one even when both are examined in 

 the hand. Holding them sideways, the shape of 

 the head and the position of the eyes in the moth 

 are seen to be nearly the same as in the bird, 

 the extended proboscis representing the long 

 beak. At the tip of the moth's body there is 

 a brush of long hair-scales resembling feathers 

 which, on being expanded, looks very much 

 like the bird's tail. But, of course, all these 

 points of resemblance are merely superficial. 

 The negroes and Indians tried to convince me 

 that the two were of the same species. ' Look 

 at their feathers,' they said, ' their eyes are the 

 same, and so are their tails.' This belief is 

 so deeply rooted that it was useless to reason 

 with them on the subject." 



Even in England people will sometimes 

 mistake the Humming Bird Hawk Moth for the 

 bird. A gentleman, on his return from a visit to 

 Devonshire, once gravely informed a naturalist 

 that humming-birds were to be found there, 

 as he himself had seen them flying about. 



