288 THE HUMMINGBIRD HAWK MOTH. 



small hatch again takes place about the end of July, 

 and this pretty insect haunts anew our currant 

 bushes ; but, enlivened by the warmth of the sea- 

 son, it becomes more wild and wary, and avoids 

 our approach. 



The hummingbird hawkmoth (sphinx stellata- 

 rum) visits us annually, and occasionally in some 

 numbers, frisking about all the summer long, and 

 in very fine seasons continues with us as late as the 

 second week in October. The vigilance and ani- 

 mation of this creature are surprising, and seem to 

 equal those of its namesake, that splendid meteoric 

 bird of the tropics, " that winged thought," as 

 some one has called it ; though our plain and dusky 

 insect can boast none of its glorious hues. Our 

 little sphinx appears chiefly in the mornings and 

 evenings of the day, rather avoiding the heat of the 

 mid- day sun, possibly roused from its rest by the 

 scent, that l( aromatic soul of flowers," which is 

 principally exhaled at these periods ; delighting in 

 the jasmine, marvel of Peru, phlox, and such 

 tubular flowers ; and it will even insert its long, 

 flexible tube into every petal of the carnation, to 

 extract the honeylike liquor it contains. It will 

 visit our geraniums and greenhouse plants, and, 

 whisking over part of them with contemptuous 

 celerity, select some composite flower that takes 

 its fancy, and examine every tube with rapidity, 

 hovering over its disk with quivering wings, while 



