The largest, and probably the most interesting, of the group is the Death's head (Acherontia), the form inhabiting China being somewhat different from the British species. It is a very handsome moth, with dark grey-brown colouring and deep yellow abdomen and under wings, the back of the thorax being marked with the characteris tic death-mask, which gives the insect its name.
Another large species is the Conyolvulvs hawk-moth (Sphynx convolvuli). This moth presents a wonderful example of Nature's "camouflage", for its colouring is grey, beautifully mottled and striated with black or darker warkings, so that it exactly resembles the bark of trees, or the irregular surfaces of lichen-covered rocks. Tu this case Nature has adopted a very different method for concealment from the "dazzle" effect noticed in that of the white-barred butterfly In the convolvulus hawk-moth the continuity of outline is broken, and consequently the form disguised obliterated, by dark markings which continue on to the body the markings of the ground surface on which the moth rests.
While on the subject of "camoufage,"' yet another means adopted forms that inhabit Asia or Europe, since there are no humming-birds in these continents. One wonders, almost, whether the whole group is not American in its origin, the Eurasian species having found their way to the Old World without changing their form to any appreciable extent. As a matter of fact the local form is not un-
Tae Carerrnuar or tHE Psyche like some of the larger bees of other members of the Hymenoptera. One can never watch a hummingbird. hawk-moth without. being faced once more by the, as yet, unanswered. question, Does it or does it not fly backward? Certainly it appears to do so, but the mere mechanics of the question seem to preclude such a possibility; and one is forced to conclude that either we are woefully deficient in our knowledge of the mechanics
Text read from the printed page and cleaned; old type leaves the occasional error.