1 14 CONTENT. 



having flown in at the open windows between sunset 

 and sunrise. 



One evening near the end of June, I was return- 

 ing to Content from a visit to the Kepp. The sun 

 had already gone down into the vn.de Caribbean Sea 

 that spread out before and almost beneath me ; and 

 the little peak-like clouds, that always appear like so 

 many islets on the horizon after his departure, were 

 beginning to lose the brilliancy of their golden 

 borders, when I entered a part of the road where the 

 beauteous scene was suddenly shut out by the lofty 

 woods towering on either side. The trees nearly 

 met overhead, so as almost to exclude the little day- 

 light that yet lingered in the sky, when my attention 

 was attracted to what at first appeared an Urania in 

 the air ; but which I presently perceived, by the 

 broad-tailed processes of the wings, to be a Cydimon. 

 Its manners were singular, and unlike those of any 

 Moth or Butterfly that I had ever seen ; so that I 

 drew up awhile to watch it. It hovered in one spot 

 high in the air, immediately over the road, at an ele- 

 vation of perhaps twenty-five feet, just in the manner 

 of a Syrphus or of some Bees, the front margin of 

 the wings strongly and rapidly tremulous ; at inter- 

 vals of a few seconds, it gave a single stroke with the 

 wings, and darted laterally to a distance of several 

 feet. Here it would become instantly stationary as 

 before ; and so proceeded, alternately hovering and 

 shooting to and fro, without leaving the open space 

 between the trees, as long as I remained. 



