72 
LETTEES FEOM ALABAMA. 
the preliminary chuck.” I have heard it ren- 
dered, Jack married a widow,” which is quite as 
good a translation as the received version, and has 
the advantage of meaning something intelligible. 
The bird is about the size of a pigeon, with a rather 
large head, and enormous mouth, though the beak 
is very small : the general colour is bright brown, 
sprinkled with innumerable spots and dashes of 
black and white, much like its congener, the Euro- 
pean Night-jar {C. Europoeus). Its food consists of 
large insects, which are abroad during the twilight 
and night, such as beetles, moths, &c. It lays two 
olive-coloured eggs, on the bare ground, without a 
nest. 
On another evening, I was writing in my room, 
the windows being open as usual, when a tiny 
Boat-fly [Notonecta)^ scarcely more than an eighth 
of an inch in length, fell on its back on my paper. 
I took it up in my hand to look at it, but it flew 
away, and presently fell on the paper again. Did 
it mistake the white paper for the shining surface 
of still water? It flew away, and came again, 
many times in succession, flying in a circular, head- 
long manner, and invariably falling on its back ; 
not coming down perpendicularly, but touching the 
paper at a very acute angle, in the act of flying, so 
as to spin along the surface. From this curious 
fact I infer that these little insects fly chiefly by 
night, and that they fly as they swim, with the hack 
downward. 
In shaking bushes to procure caterpillars, I often 
shake off a pretty little lizard, of a bright pale- 
green colour, about five inches in length, of which 
two-thirds at least are tail [Anolis hullaris). It is 
nimble^ but not nearly so swift as the other lizards ; 
