LETTERS FROM ALABAMA. 139 
about two and a half inches long. The remaining 
caterpillar was very wary, and I nearly lost my 
patience in trying to get hold of him. I had to 
chop very cautiously for fear of cutting him through 
like the others; and as fast as his hole was ex- 
posedj he retired further in ; sometimes he would 
poke his tail just out ; hut on my touching him, he 
would instantly draw hack. At last I managed to 
outwit him in this way : , I began to hatter the 
opposite side of the tree with the poll of the axe, ■ 
and was pleased to see that at every blow he gave 
a start, projecting his hinder part farther and 
farther out of the hole, when I suddenly seized him 
with my fingers, and, maugre his utmost efforts 
.and strong struggles, dragged him from his fortress 
into daylight. 
I found it was the larva of a species of Cossus, 
very much like that of the Goat-moth of Europe, 
about three inches in length, of a livid reddish 
hue, thinly scattered over with fine hairs, with 
a hard horny deep-brown head. He was very 
fierce, seizing my hand with his jaws whenever 
I attempted to touch him, and jerking round bis 
head with great spitefulness. It crawled very 
swiftly, I could not find that it had the sense of 
sight ; for fierce and resentful as it was, when I 
placed my finger before it, even close to its head, 
it took not the least notice ; but if I touched but 
the tip of one of the hairs, then it instantly raised 
its head and stretched open its jaws. Indeed, 
spending its life imjmired in the centre of a tree, 
sight would be perfectly useless to it. I did not 
detect the strong and subtle odour which distin- 
guishes its European congener. 
The economy of this and similar insects is curious. 
