THE HUMMINGBIRD HAWKMOTH. 197 



mon, it may be mistaken by indifferent observers for 

 the little blue argus of our pastures; but it appears 

 some months earlier than that insect is accustomed to 

 do ; does not flit from blossom to blossom, and bask 

 upon the disks of the lowly herbs ; and, though a feebler 

 creature on the wing, takes a much higher range in 

 flight, and sports in altitudes which the argus, with all 

 its animation, is very rarely inclined to attempt. When 

 in captivity, the dark margins of the upper wings, the 

 black specks, not eyes, and the pale blue of the reverse, 

 without any other character, render it perfectly distin- 

 guishable from the papilio argus, corydon, or any other 

 butterfly found with us. A 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 season, it becomes more wild and wary, 

 and avoids our approach. 



The hummingbird hawkmoth (sphinx stellatarum) 

 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 animation 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 " 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 honey-like liquor it con- 

 tains. It will visit our geraniums and greenhouse 

 plants, and, whisking over part of them with contempt- 

 uous celerity, select some composite flower that takes 

 its fancy, and examine every tube with rapidity, hover- 

 ing over its disk with quivering wings, while its fine 

 hawk-like eyes survey all surrounding dangers. The 

 least movement alarms it, and it darts away with the 

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