THE POPLAR HAWK 37 



apple trees in August and September. It then 

 buries itself in the ground below, and changes 

 to a shiny reddish-brown chrysalis, from which 

 the moth makes its appearance early in the 

 following June. 



PLATE XIX 

 THE POPLAR HAWK (i and 2) 



This is a very handsome moth indeed, which 

 makes its appearance about the end of May or 

 the beginning of June, when you may often see 

 it resting on fences, or on the trunks of poplar 

 trees. After dark, too, you may sometimes see 

 it flying round and round street lamps ; and just 

 now and then it will come into a lighted room 

 through an open window. And in August and 

 the early part of September you may find the 

 caterpillar, which feeds on the leaves of poplar 

 trees, and also on those of willows and laurus- 

 tinus. It grows to a length of nearly three inches, 

 and is green in colour, sprinkled with yellow. 

 And you can always tell it from that of any other 

 hawk moth by the seven yellow and white 

 stripes on its sides, and also by the yellow horn 

 on its tail. About the middle of September it 

 reaches its full size, and then burrows down into 

 the ground at the roots of the tree on which 

 it has been feeding, and turns to a rough brown 



