154 HABITS AND INSTINCTS OF ANIMALS. CHAP. V. 



insect feels perfectly secure from the attacks of those 



numerous small warblers > and other insectivorous birds^ 

 which are constantly searching for insects among foliage. 

 Rosel relates a story of his gardener, who, mistaking 

 one of these caterpillars for a dead twig, started hack 

 in great alarm, when, upon attempting to break it off, 

 he found it was a living animal. Nearly the whole of 

 the typical hawk moths (Sphingides) assume attitudes 

 of a threatening or terrific character ; thus becoming 

 fit emblems of the Fera among quadrupeds, and the 

 Arachno'ides among insects. When at rest, these cater- 

 pillars, which are usually of the same green colour as 

 the foliage upon which they feed, by drawing their 

 heads into an elevated curve, assume a rampant atti- 

 tude (fig. 52.), and thus remain motionless for hours: 

 if, however, they are disturbed, they move the head 

 and fore part of the body, by sudden jerks, on one side 

 and the other, precisely as if it intended to give a side 

 blow to its assailants. An attitude precisely similar is 

 assumed by the great caterpillar of the Bombyx regalis, 

 called by the Americans the horned devil when dis- 

 turbed, it draws up its head, and shakes it from side to 

 side, as if threatening to attack its enemy : this motion, 

 together with the strange horns which point out from 

 the head in every direction, gives this insect such a 



