50 
LETTERS FROM ALABAMA. 
partially devoured them. My preserved specimens 
of insects I find almost impossible to secure from 
them : they find them out in the store-boxes, even 
when these are inclosed in a trunk ; and making 
their way through the keyhole, or beneath the lid, 
commit great havoc. The only effectual resource 
is to imbue each insect, as soon as killed, with 
a solution of corrosive sublimate ; after which the 
ants will not touch it. 
There is a Hare, or Rabbit, as everybody here 
calls it {Lepus Americanus) ; and indeed, in size and 
appearance, it is so much like our own rabbit, that it 
does seem rather unnatural to call it a hare, though 
perhaps the latter term is more strictly correct. It 
is a timid little creature, but rather curious withal. 
On our approach it runs a little way into the woods 
with erected scut, then suddenly stops, turns round, 
stands up on its legs, and, straining its long ears 
forward, gazes at us, then runs a few yards further, 
and again turns, till, having satisfied its curiosity, 
it hurries away to some hollow tree, creeps in at the 
little hole at the bottom, and there considers itself 
safe from its many adversaries, little dreaming of 
the hunter’s twisting-stick. The young ones are 
very pretty, innocent-looking little things ; one was 
brought in the other day by one of the children, 
who found it in the woods ; it nestled in my bosom 
so confidingly, that I felt sorry it had been caught, 
and so let it run again. 
The twisting-stick I mentioned just now is a 
curious mode of taking furred animals out of hol- 
low tree^s, logs, and similar places. 1 lately saw it 
put into operation, but do not desire ever to witness 
it again. A hunter’s dog had tracked and driven a 
rabbit to his hole in the bottom of a hollow hickory- 
