THE HUMMINGBIRD HAWKMOTH. 
19 ? 
mon, it may be mistaken by indifferent observers for 
the little blue argus of our pastures; but it appears 
some months earlier than that insect is accustomed to 
do; does not flit from blossom to blossom, and bask 
upon the disks of the lowly herbs ; and, though a feebler 
creature on the wing, takes a much higher range in 
flight, and sports in altitudes which the argus, with all 
its animation, is very rarely inclined to attempt. When 
in captivity, the dark margins of the upper wings, the 
black specks, not eyes, and the pale blue of the reverse, 
without any other character, render it perfectly distin- 
guishable from the papilio argus, corydon, or any other 
butterfly found with us. A small hatch again takes 
place about the end of July, and this pretty insect 
haunts anew our currant bushes ; but, enlivened by the 
warmth of the season, it becomes more wild and wary, 
and avoids our approach. 
The hummingbird hawkmoth (sphinx stellatarum) 
visits us annually, and occasionally in some numbers, 
frisking about all the summer long, and in very fine 
seasons continues with us as late as the second week in 
October. The vigilance and animation of this creature 
are surprising, and seem to equal those of its namesake, 
that splendid meteoric bird of the tropics, “ that winged 
thought,” as some one has called it ; though, our plain 
and dusky insect can boast none of its glorious hues. 
Our little sphinx appears chiefly in the mornings and 
evenings of the day, rather avoiding the heat of the 
mid-day sun, possibly roused from its rest by the scent, 
that “ aromatic soul of flowers,” which is principally 
exhaled at these periods; delighting in the jasmine, 
marvel of Peru, phlox, and such tubular flowers ; and 
it will even insert its long, flexible tube into every petal 
of the carnation, to extract the honey-like liquor it con- 
tains. It will visit our geraniums and greenhouse 
plants, and, whisking over part of them with contempt- 
uous celerity, select some composite flower that takes 
its fancy, and examine every tube with rapidity, hover- 
ing over its disk with quivering wings, while its fine 
hawk-like eyes survey all surrounding dangers. The 
least movement alarms it, and it darts away with the 
