DEATH'S-HEAD CATERPILLAR. 137 



its perfect state, with the gift (boasted, we believe, by no 

 other caterpillar) of a voice; for it is said by Kirby that if 

 disturbed, it draws back rapidly, and emits a loud noise, 

 which may be compared to the crackle of an electric spark. 

 Its favourite food is furnished by the leaves of the jasmine and 

 potato ; and, with the increased cultivation of the latter, the 

 death's-head has become of late years less scarce than formerly. 

 The caterpillar is said to feed also on hemp, elder, and the 

 woody nightshade. It is mentioned in the ' Cambridge Chro- 

 nicle,' of September, 1846, that Mr. Denny took twenty of 

 the full-grown larvae from off a tea- tree, growing on the top 

 of a house at the back of Downing-terrace, all of which he 

 successfully reared into splendid specimens of their kind. 



These caterpillars, as well as various others, are apt to 

 elude the search of the collector by taking refuge during day- 

 time from the sun's rays and the darts of ichneumon-flies, not 

 merely under the leaves they feed on, but in the earth beneath 

 them. To the same bed they retire towards the end of August 

 or beginning of September, and, forming therein their smooth 

 untapestried chambers, put off their gay attire for chrysalidan 

 covers. From these, as we have seen, they burst in autumn, 

 harbingers of wintry death, at least to the vegetable world. 



The ominous Death-watch, when drawn from its hiding- 

 place in old perforated floor or wainscot, picture-frame, chest, 

 or black-lettered volume, comes forth (a mouse from a moun- 

 tain of fear !) a tiny beetle of some quarter of an inch in 



