LETTERS PROM ALABAMA. 
49 
the back be upward or downward. Though per- 
fectly harmless j it has the reputation of being 
highly poisonousj which has probably given rise to 
its ominous name. 
But swift as is this species^ it is surpassed by 
another kind [Tachydromus sexUneatiis)^ a lizard 
of great beauty^ appropriately called the Fast- 
runner. It is by no means so common as the 
“ scorpion/’ but the boys struck and killed one the 
other day^ which they brought to me. It is 
slender^ but about nine inches long^ of which the 
tail is more than six. The body is dark brown, 
with a palish stripe down the back ; three lines of 
bright yellow run down longitudinally on each 
side, and a fourth reaches from tlie head to the 
foreleg, passing through the ear ; the stripes become 
indistinct on the tail : the under parts are white. 
I laid this specimen on the window-sill of my 
chamber, in the evening, about fifteen feet from 
the ground ; and in the moriiing:found a black line 
extending from it to the earth all down the wall, 
formed by innumerable ants of a very minute 
species, and my lizard almost wholly devoured. 
These insects must have had very acute perceptions, 
to discover prey at so great a distance ; or else, as 
is more probable, there must have been intelligible 
communications made from the one who perhaps 
accidentally discovered the food to others, and 
from them in succession to the whole multitude. 
Since I am speaking of ants, I may mention an- 
other instance of their voracity : I had several cater- 
pillars and chrysalids that I was rearing in a breed- 
ing-box : on opening it the other day, to my chagrin 
I found it occupied by a legion of these little black 
ants, which had killed all but one chrysalis^ and 
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