LETTERS FROM ALABAMA. 
61 
wliicli frequently betrays it in the woods to the 
hunter’s unerring aim. Its shape is slender and 
elegant, the head is small and the tail long ; the 
general colour of the upper parts is light blue, and of 
the under parts pale orange, the plumage reflecting, 
in a remarkable degree, those brilliant metallic hues 
which are more or less common to the whole pigeon 
tribe. 
Here is a flower of great beauty, growing neg- 
lected and unnoticed in the corners of the rail- 
fence. It is the Indian Pink [Spigelia Mary- 
landica ) ; its spike of slender tubular flowers, 
brilliant crimson externally, and internally yellow, 
would alone entitle it to our admiration ; but it has 
other claims to our regard, on account of its value 
in medical botany. But notice that heavy, thick- 
set butterfly, probing with its long tongue the deep 
nectar-tube of the corolla. Like the rest of its 
tribe, for it is one of that extensive group commonly 
called Skippers (Hesperiadce) ^ the White-spotted 
Skipper {Eudamus Tityrus) is more like a moth 
than a butterfly, and serves well to be one of the 
connecting links between the diurnal and the 
nocturnal Lepidoptera. It is very susceptible of 
alarm, flies swiftly, violently, and in a headlong 
manner, and has many of the motions of the Hawk- 
moths. 
Now, as we plunge into this romantic little 
hollow, where the oaks and hickories meet over- 
head, and entwine their branches together, we seem 
to leave daylight behind us. And, as if to be 
quite in character, see the Barred Owl {Strix ne- 
hulosa) flying silent and ghost-like across our path, 
and now staring at us from yonder tree. 
Here we emerge again into at least comparative 
