MOTHS OF THE LIMBERLOST 



the purple thistle blooms; so to my thought it returns as 

 "bloody nose." 



The pairs mate early after emerging, and lay about 

 two hundred small eggs to the female, from which the 

 caterpillars soon hatch, and begin their succession of 

 moults. One writer gave black haw and snowball as 

 their favourite foods, and the length of the caterpillar 

 when full grown nearly two inches. They are either a 

 light brown with yellow markings, or green with yellow; 

 all of them have white granules on the body, and a blue- 

 black horn with a yellow base. They spin among the 

 leaves on the ground, and the pupa, while small, is shaped 

 like Regalis, except that it has a sharper point at each 

 end, and more prominent wing shields. It has no raised 

 tongue case, although it belongs to the family of "long 

 tongues. " 



On learning all I could acquire by experience with 

 these moths, and what the books had to teach, I became 

 their warm admirer. One sunny morning climbing the 

 hill on the way to the cardinals, with fresh plates in my 

 cameras, and high hopes in my heart, I passed an unusu- 

 ally large fine thistle, with half a dozen Thysbe maths 

 fluttering over it as if nearly crazed with fragrance, or 

 honey they were sipping. 



"Come here! Come here! Come here!" intoned the 

 cardinal, from the sycamore of Rainbow Bottom. 



"Just you wait a second, old fellow!" I heard myself 



291 



