LEPIDOPTERA. 
7& 
honeyed measures from long flower-tubes. The Death’s- 
head, however, has a short, thick tongue, and when this 
moth wishes for honey, it enters bees’ hives and robs the 
insects of it, or else, perhaps, feeds on the juices of very 
ripe fruit. This magnificent moth is undeservedly in ill 
repute on account of the very curious and conspicuous 
markings on its thorax, representing a human skull 
with thigh-bones crossed beneath, which superstitious 
people regard with horror, as they suppose the insect 
Larva of Privet Hawk-Motii {Sphinx liyuurij. 
presages death. Another curious fact about this Hawk- 
moth is its faculty of uttering a cry or squeak like that 
of a mouse, or the creaking of cork ; this adds to the 
horror with which it is regarded. I have on two or 
three occasions heard this peculiar squeak, but could 
not make out how the sound was produced. I believe 
the question is still a problem. According to a writer 
in Notes and Queries , there is a quaint superstition that 
the Death’s-head Moth has been very common in White- 
