Almost her first demand was to see
pictures. One bird study I handed her was of a brooding king rail,
over a foot tall, with a three-foot wing sweep, and a long curved
bill. She cried, "Oh! see the dear little hummingbird!"
If a woman of unlimited opportunity, in this day of the world,
does not know a rail from a humming-bird, what could you expect of
my little mother, who spoke only two languages, reared twelve lusty
children, and never saw an ocean.
So by degrees the Lady Bird of the garden resolved itself into
Deilephila Lineata. Deile--evening; phila--lover; lineata--lined;
the Lined Evening Lover. Why 'evening' is difficult to understand,
for all my life this moth occurs more frequently with me in the fore
and early afternoon than in the evening. So I agree with those
entomologists who call it the 'white-lined morning-sphinx.'
It is lovely in modest garb, delicately lined, but exceedingly
rich in colour. It has the long slender wings of the Sphingid
moths, and in grace and tirelessness of flight resembles Celeus,
the swallow of the moth family.
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