64 



A TOUR ROOND MY GARBEN. 



means of which it sucks from the depths of the flowers the 

 honey they contain. 



We must not believe that because it only flies by night, 

 this butterfly, which naturalists call a sphinx, neglects its 

 dress. Its wings are of a grey, shaded with various browns 

 and blacks; its body is painted with white, rose-coloured, 

 and black rings, separated along its whole length by a grey 

 stripe. . 



Here comes another, still more richly clothed; its body 

 and its wings are of two colours— rose, and olive-green. 



But what plaintive cry do I hear upon that jasmine? Is 

 it that great sphinx * which has lighted there, and takes it 



D£ATH S-HEAD MOTH, 



into his head to moan thus? If the cry it utters is lament- 

 able, its aspect is not a bit more exhilarating. Its upper 

 wings are shaded with dark colours, the inferior are of pale 

 tarnished orange, with black bands. Its body is striped with 

 black rings, and with that same dull orange; but it is on its 

 corselet that nature has indulged in a singular fancy; orange 

 and black spots form, in a perfectly distinct manner, the 

 figure of a deatVs head. 



* Acherontia atropoi. — Es. 



