1 20 
A NATURALIST ON THE PROWL. 
duced moths. And once I had a Sphinx, a real Oleander 
Hawk-moth. It was green, with two large blue eyes, and 
had a thin straight tail, which afterwards grew short and 
curved. The great comet of 1857 and the finding of that 
caterpillar were the two memorable events of my child- 
hood, but I remember more about the caterpillar. 
More than a score and a half of years have gone by, and 
I still keep caterpillars, but now I would not stop to take 
an Oleander Sphinx off the plant. It is absolute rubbish. 
In one season I have reared fifty or sixty different kinds 
of caterpillars, some of them rare and beautiful, some new 
and strange. Yet it is only the truth to say that the 
interest which they excite in me to-day is cold and dull 
compared with the wild enthusiasm of those early days. 
Why is this ? Am I blase, \ or is it the general doom ? Must 
the interest of life wane for us all as the progress of 
knowledge curtails the playground of imagination ? No 
doubt it must in a measure, but there is another cause. 
I believe that in these days we have too many occupa- 
tions, too many interests ; we know too many things, and, 
if you will, have too many advantages and facilities. Our 
faculty of taking an interest is dissipated and frittered 
away. There can be no doubt that the summit of earthly 
