LOBSTER MOTH. Ill 



Taking a sylvan stroll, in the above-named months of 

 August and September, and looking about and above us, we 

 may perceive, seated on a branch probably of oak, or maybe 

 of beech, or lime, or hazel a little monster, with head and 

 shoulders elevated, d la Sphinx, and, stretched out above 

 them, a pair of bony arms, jointed, long, and not unlike the 

 claws of a lobster, while, to balance these, a couple of slen- 

 der, horny appendages arise from near the tail. 



This strange little animal, after having passed the winter as 

 a chrysalis, enclosed in a silken web, and that often between 

 leaves, comes forth, in the present month, a Moth, y'clept, 

 from the monstrous figure of its caterpillar, " the Lobster," 

 although, as a perfect insect, it displays, neither in form nor 

 colour, any of the singularity which distinguishes its earliest 

 stage. On the contrary, this beautiful Moth, like those well- 

 judging few who throw aside, in maturity, the conceited 

 eccentricities by which they love to be distinguished in youth, 

 is an insect as little conspicuous, though, withal, as richly clad, 

 as any of its tribe for the hues of its wings, being grey, 

 brown, red, and ochre, harmoniously variegated, assimilate 

 very closely to the colouring of the oak bark and that of 

 other trees, whereon, by good fortune or by good looking for, 

 the "Lobster" may sometimes, about noontide, be "caught 

 napping." 



In following the "lobster" to its winged estate, we have in- 

 advertently given to eccentricity precedence over rank, or we 



