234 CONTENT. 



EREBUS ODORA. 



Tliat fine insect, Erehus odor a, one of the largest 

 of Moths, frequently attaining an expanse of wing of 

 seven inches, is not uncommon in certain localities. 

 It occasionally flies into the house at night, and I 

 have sometimes found it resting with horizontally 

 expanded wings against a wall under a piazza, or in 

 the angle formed by a rafter, during the day. But it 

 is in the deep and sombre woods that we chiefly see 

 this fine Moth. I know several gloomy glens, where 

 the tall trees nearly shut out the rays of the sun, in 

 which I could be pretty sure to rouse one or more, on 

 any day in July or August. A large log or fallen 

 trunk lying on the ground in the woods, will often 

 harbour one on its under side ; in the angle formed 

 by the buttress-like roots of a Cotton-tree, we may 

 see one resting ; or even against the dark trunk of 

 some rough-barked tree, without any shelter or con- 

 cealment, except the resemblance of its own colours, 

 variegations of brown and grey, to the lichened and 

 weather-stained surface on which it rests motionless. 

 It is easily alarmed ; and then usually dances to and 

 fro, on rapid wing, without leaving the sight ; and 

 suddenly alights on a similar spot to that from which 

 it rose ; often the very same corner. These habits of 

 frequenting the dark woods, of suddenly alighting on 

 a tree without hovering, and of resting on a dark 

 surface with horizontal wings, so as to be with 

 diflficulty found even though watched to the resting- 

 place, are almost exactly those of the Catocalce, near 



