HAWK-MOTHS AND SPHINXES. 273 



founded on the moth's hovering mode of flight, the latter, 

 on the caterpillar's remarkable form and position when at 

 rest. 



When the gaudy butterfly has folded her wings for sleep, 

 and while the dark night-flying moth is still lurking under 

 leafy covert, various sphinxes may be seen darting rapidly from 

 flower to flower, or busied in rifling their sweets as they hang 

 suspended over their honeyed cups. These insect tipplers 

 imbibe their deep potations by unrolling their usually coiled 

 tongues, which are hollow tubes, often of prodigious length, 

 and plunging them to the bottom of the nectaries they drain. 



Many of the hawk-moths are named after the trees and 

 plants which furnish the favourite food of their caterpillar 

 life ; and from among these we shall select, as greatly distin- 

 guished for size and beauty, the " Convolvulus " l and the 

 " Privet." The former, called also the " Bind-weed " and the 

 " Unicorn " hawk-moth, is a splendid specimen of its kind, if 

 the term " splendid " so often ridiculously misapplied may 

 be aptly employed with reference to its wide expanse of wing 

 (reaching often to an extension of four inches and a-half), and 

 to the exquisitely varied yet sober pencilling, black on a ground 

 of ashy grey, wherewith these ample pinions are elaborately 

 adorned. 



Of a different genus,- and of size very much inferior to the 

 two last, but more interesting, perhaps, than either in its 

 habits and associations, is the hawk-moth called the " Hum- 

 ming-bird/' 3 This name is derived from the vibratory sound 

 emitted by the wings of this pretty insect, as it hangs sus- 

 pended, morning and evening, above the flowers, of which the 

 honeyed treasures, however deeply hidden, are never inacces- 

 sible to its prying tongue. Not even the long, narrow flagons 

 of Marvel of Peru, or trumpet honeysuckle, can protect their 



1 Sphinx convolvuli. a Macroglossa. 



3 Macroglossa stellatarum. (Vignette.) 



