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H A VV K M O T H. 



same authority, the Wmale bird is particularly grateful 

 lor this music ; and it is natural that she should, be- 

 cause she, of all the order, is the only female whose 

 mate serenades her with an agreeable song. Some 

 of the owls, indeed, do their best in the way of noise, 

 but there is not much music in their hooting. The 

 female shows her attachment very strongly in the 

 event of the male being shot ; while singing is of 

 course the timo for doing this ; and if it is done, the 

 iemale instantly flies to the place where the male 

 was perched for he sings from the perch only and 

 if she does not spy the body, she continues to fly 

 round and round ibr a considerable time, uttering the 

 most subdued and mournful cries ; and so much is 

 she absorbed by her sorrow, that on these occasions 

 she, too, becomes an easy prey to the fowler. Of 

 course it is only for specimens, to serve the purposes 

 of science or of curiosity, that such birds as these are 

 shot ; and where so much attachment is shown 

 among animals, of which our general feeling is so 

 very different, one almost regrets that they should be 

 destroyed for any purposes except the most urgent 

 ones. It does not appear that the male shows so 

 much affection ; for, if the female is shot while the 

 male is singing, he continues his song a little, and 

 then flies off. This species is about the size of the 

 peregrine falcon, and more handsomely formed than 

 the common hawks. The general colour on the 

 upper part is grey, with brown undulations on the 

 under part ; the quills, which are of a short character, 

 are black ; and the tail, which is wedge-shaped, is 

 brown, crossed by bars of white ; the form of the 

 wings and tail point out the species as a bird of the 

 woods, where it lodges and nestles, the eggs being 

 four in number, of a white colour, and nearly round. 

 They are bold bird^ and commit great depredations 

 on quails, partridges, and other ground birds ; they 

 also attack hares and rabbits ; and, when other prey is 

 not to be had, they have recourse to mice and reptiles. 

 THE DWARF SPARROW-HAWK (A. minutus,* This 

 is also an African species. It is described as being 

 brown on the upper part and white on the under, 

 having the breast marked with longitudinal streaks of 

 brown, and the belly with cross bars of the same 

 colour. Though small in size, not exceeding the 

 common blackbird, this species is daring. It not 

 only drives off the more powerful of the den- 

 tirostral birds, such as the larger butcher-birds, 

 but it attacks the kite and the buzzard. Crows are, 

 however, the most marked objects of its persecution, 

 for it chases them with eager impetuosity, uttering a 

 cry which has been compared to that of the kestrel. 

 The lesser birds are its ordinary food ; but when a 

 sufficiency of these cannot be procured, it has recourse 

 to some of the larger sorts of insects, particularly of 

 the mantis and locust tribes. The female, which is 

 nearly double the size of the male, but with plumage 

 of duller tints, forms its nest, in rather a coarse style, 

 of small twigs, intermixed with leaves and moss, and 

 lined with leaves, wool, or moss, and lays in this 

 from four to five eggs. As Levaillant was sitting at 

 a table, engaged in preparing some birds lately killed, 

 one of these hawks suddenly stooped, and, seizing one 

 of the recently-stuffed specimens, and flying to a 

 neighbouring tree, began to pull the feathers, and 

 tear it open, but, rinding nothing but moss and cotton, 

 seemed indignant at the disappointment, and at length 

 contented itself with devouring the head, the only 

 part which remained in its natural state. 



HAWKMOTH. The English name given to a 

 very extensive primary section of lepidopteruus insects 

 which formed one of the three genera into which that 

 order was divided by Linnaeus, Sphinx, distinguished 

 by a robust body, prismatic antennae, and strong wines, 

 which do not extend to the extremity of the abdomen. 

 They are generally of a large size, indeed the species 

 found in this country are by far the largest lepido- 

 pterous insects which we possess. Their colours are 

 generally agreeably varied, the under wings being 

 often banded. Owing to their strength of wing, their 

 flight i very strong, whence the ordinary English 

 name ; during flight, moreover, they produce a strong 

 humming noise, which renders their approach easily 

 perceived. They dart about with the greatest rapi- 

 dity from flower to flower, preferring those that 

 have long and tubular corollas, into which they intro- 

 duce their long and spiral tongue, by which they are 

 enabled to reach the honey at its base ; whilst thus 

 employed, they remain as it were suspended in the 

 air in front of the flowers, their wings being kept in a 

 long sustained hover. That delightful describer of 

 every thing rural, Miss Mitford, has so well noticed 

 the motions of one of these insects, in her truly 

 national " Our Village," that we are tempted to ex- 

 tract a short passage. She is describing her garden, 

 in which she traces " the gay gambols of the common 

 butterflies as they sport around the dahlias, or watches 

 that rarer moth which the country people, fertile in 

 pretty names, call the bee-bird * ; that bird-like insect 

 which flutters in the hottest days over the sweetest 

 flowers, inserting its long proboscis into the small 

 tubes of the jasmins, and hovering over the scarlet 

 flowers of the geranium, whose bright colour seems 

 reflected on its own feathery breast ; that insect 

 which seems so thoroughly a creature of the air, never 

 at rest, always when feeding self-poised and self-sup- 

 ported, and whose wings in their motion have a sound 

 so deep, so full, so lulling, and so musical ; nothing so 

 pleasant as to sit amid that mixture of the flower and 

 the leaf, watching the bee-bird." 



The caterpillars of these moths vary considerably 

 in their forms, especially in the anterior part of the 

 body, in some this part is susceptible of great elon- 

 gation like the trunk of the elephant, whence those 

 species have obtained the name of elephant hawk- 

 moths. This motion is effected when the insect is 

 feeding and in search of food, at which time the neck 

 assumes a narrow conical form, truncated in front, the 

 head and face forming the truncated part ; when in 

 repose they withdraw this elongation, so that the front 

 of the body then seems clavate. Other species do 

 not possess this peculiarity, but elevate the anterior 

 part of the body even as far as the first or second 

 pro-legs, assuming an attitude like that of the fabu- 

 lous sphinx, as represented in our article CATER- 

 PILLAR. The last segment but one of the body is 

 furnished with a horn, which varies considerably in 

 form, in some being straight, slender, and smooth, in 

 others, as in the death's-head hawkmoth, being curved 

 and very rugose, whilst in others it is linear and not 

 persistent, existing only during the early stages of the 

 caterpillar's existence, its place being subsequently 

 occupied by a very small eminence. In the sphinx 

 Hippophaes, an inhabitant of Dauphiny^ the larva, 



* In a note this insect is said to be the Sphint ligttslri, r,r 

 privet hawkmoth, bat it is evidently intended for the Sphiii* 

 utellntarum, or humming-bird hawkmoiii. 



