THE BUTTERFLY FARM AT THE ZOO 23 
hundreds of silk-producing insects. We once heard 
the generic difference between angels and fairies stated 
with all the certainty which was due to the youth of 
the speaker : — “ Angels have birds’ wings, and fairies 
have butterflies’ wings, of course ! ” was the indignant 
answer to the difficulty raised. Imps, too, have 
bats’ wings. But the wings of the moth have not 
yet been appropriated to the human embodiment of 
the unseen denizens of the air. There is a softness 
and reserve of colouring, and an uncertainty of out- 
line in the moth’s wing, which mark it at once as 
something distinct from the sharply cut, and brilliantly 
coloured forms of their butterfly relations. 
Perhaps the most brightly coloured moths which 
are raised in the house are the Eacles regalis, which 
are covered with a net- work of orange, rivalling in 
colour the inner flesh of a melon, on a ground of 
greenish-grey ; and the Eacles imperialism in which 
an exquisite shade of “ old rose ” invades and is lost 
in a rich cream-coloured ground. 
Not the least beautiful among the giant moths is 
the splendid creature from the cocoons of which the 
wild silks of India are wound. This is a far larger 
and finer moth than that which produces the Chinese 
tussur-silk. Its wings are “ old gold ” in colour, with 
two large transparent eyes on each, fringed with rose- 
colour. These, according to Hindoo superstition, 
are the finger-marks of the god Vishnu, and the 
Tussur moth is, therefore, sacred to that deity. But 
it is among the wild demon-worshipping Santhals 
