AUGUST 195 



you apply a match to the flowering branches or quaint 

 quadrangular seed-vessels. An inflammable gas given off 

 by the plants at once blazes out with a slight explosion, 

 leaving behind it a deliciously aromatic fragrance. 



XXIX 



He who fusses himself about natural history encounters 

 some comical incidents. It was verging on The Death ' s . 

 midnight, and I fancied that all the household he a* M <* 

 were in bed, when my butler, who lives at the lodge, 

 appeared in the room carrying a box done up in brown 

 paper, which he set down on the table with some signs of 

 trepidation. ' This has just been left at the lodge/ said 

 he ; ' there is something alive in it, so I thought I had 

 better bring it in at once.' Sure enough there was some- 

 thing alive, for a continuous noise half click, half buzz, 

 proceeded from within. Or was it clockwork ? Visions 

 of infernal machines flitted through my mind, but, recol- 

 lecting that my own importance was not on a scale to 

 attract the malevolence of any anarchist, I cut the string 

 and opened a chink of the box. A black head, with two 

 hooked black horns, appeared in the orifice, and two 

 substantial black claws. Ex ungue leonein I recognised 

 my nocturnal visitor as the death's-head moth (Ache- 

 rontia atropos), noblest of all the British hawk-moths. 

 The clicking, buzzing noise went on, proceeding from 

 the powerful wings, in rapid, tremulous motion. 



Desiring to obtain a full view of the creature's funebral 

 beauty, I opened the box a bit wider. He was out in a 

 moment, dashing indignantly round the library, taking a 

 couple of turns under the lamps, and then flinging him- 



