PLATE CCCLXl. 3 



Infe&. We have, however, ft ill further to obferve, that although it 

 was unique as Britijh at the time Mr. Haworth defcribed it from 

 Mr. Drury's cabinet, it is not fo at prefent, another collector, as 

 Mr. Haworth informs us, having captured a fpecimen of it very 

 lately in the vicinity of Little Chelfea, near which place it proves, 

 upon pretty accurate information that Mr. Diary's fpecimen was 

 alfo taken. 



Thefe are our authorities for confidering the fpecies as Britifli, 

 and of courfe as claiming a very diitiaguiihed place in the prefent 

 work, not lefs on account of its magnitude, than its beauty and rarity. 

 That it is occancnally found in Britain is fufficiently obvious, but 

 there are circumftanc.es attending its h if lory that leave fome doubts 

 upon our mind, whether we ought not rather to confider it as a natu- 

 ralized fpecies, than as an aborigine, at the fame time lhat the abfo- 

 lute impoflibility of deciding this doubtful particular miift be ac- 

 knowledged. — In America, we well know, it is far from uncommon, 

 and being naturally a hardy fpecies, there is at leaft a poflibility of 

 the parent flock of the Englifh brood having been originally intro- 

 duced into this country with the cargoes of fome American veffels. 



7 1 his being the true Sphinx Carolina of Linnaeus, an infect, fo 

 very clearly afcertained both from the Linnean defcription of it, and 

 from the figure quoted in the works of Merian, we cannot avoid 

 exprefling fome furprife, that Mr. Haworth, in his recent publica- 

 tion above-mentioned, fliould have deemed it altogether a new fpecies. 

 The circumitance of Mr. Drury's fpecimen having only five pair of 

 lateral fpots on the abdomen, inftead of fix as Linnaeus remarks in 

 fpeaking of his Sphinx Carolina, may perhaps -have led to this error ; 

 for in every other, particular Linnaeus is furely too exprefiive 

 to be ealily miftaken. So far as relates to the number of thofe 

 yellow lateral loots, the Linnaean definition muft be underftood with 

 fome latitude for Linnaeus Mould certainly have been more correct 

 in ftatin°" five fpots on each tide to be the ufual number, inftead of 

 fix All the fpecimens of Sphinx Carolina that have occurred to our 

 own obfervation, have been uniformly marked with live pair of la- 



B 2 teral 



