170 Animal Life 
They do not wander far, but qmietly feed upon the leaves one after another. Their 
presence in any poplar is made known by the pellets of frass upon the pavement. 
When full-fed, in August and September, they descend the trunks and often walk long 
distances before finding a convenient place in the soil in which to pupate. 
The beautiful Eyed Hawk is not common about London, though occasionally 
found feeding upon apple trees in old-fashioned gardens such as those at Waterlow 
Park, where it is also to be seen upon willows, its favourite food, especially when 
these overhang water (Fig. 1). In such situations, thei pale-green bodies, with 
seven whitish oblique stripes on each side, give them such wonderful protective 
resemblance that it requires a sharp eye to detect them, as they are nearly the same 
width as a willow-leaf, and, like the other hawk-moths, have a more or less 
pronounced horn on the last segment, the point bending over towards the tail. In 
all three species of Smerinthus the skin is rough and shagreened. The Poplar Hawk 
is yellowish green, with yellow stripes and horn; the margin of the head beimg also 
yellow. Sometimes the larve are ornamented with reddish markings. The Hyed 
Hawk is perhaps a little longer, but with the exception of the markings, colour of the 
oblique stripes, etc., beimg white, and the whole body covered with minute white spots 
giving it the shagreened appearance, the family resemblance is at once seen. In 
August last I found some larvee feeding upon a willow overhanging the canal at 
Woking, and took a photograph of them. The larve were then boxed and transferred 
to my “larvarium,” where they increased in length and girth until three inches long. 
The pose of Sphinx larvee is very striking (Fig. 2). They cannot be photographed at 
any moment, as one peculiarity is their extreme sensitiveness, the mere opening of 
a door being quite sufficient to disturb them from their sphinx-hke attitude and put 
them on the quiver. But with the marvellous lenses now made both quivering and 
chattering do not prevent photographs being taken, as Figs. 3 and 4 will prove. 
When full-fed, the caterpillars soon lose 
their clear colour, the whitish-green changing 
to a sickly yellow, which tones better to 
the colour of the ground over which they 
travel until a suitable spot is found. Here 
the larva soon burrows beneath the surface 
to the depth of a few inches. By sheer 
muscular strength it then pushes the soil 
away from its body, which is twirled and 
twisted round and round, the rough shag- 
reened surface acting like a rasp upon the 
soil. This becomes gradually rammed tighter 
and tighter until a beautiful smooth oval 
chamber is formed about half as long as 
the length of the full-fed caterpillar, which, 
now contracted, rests upon its back for 
some days until the pupa is evolved. The 
skin, splitting at the back of the head, is 
eradually sloughed off towards the tail. Safe 
in its earthen sepulchre, the pupa rests 
until the following year, when the perfect 
moth is ready to emerge, and, without imjury 
to its multitude of many-coloured scales, 
forces its way upward with a power that 
is simply incomprehensible, arriving at the 
