188 
LETTERS FROM ALABAMA. 
of the enclosed butterfly, though some liquid was 
discharged. This occurred in the morning ; in the 
course of the day, the chrysalis began to assume 
the colours and marks of the Archippus butterfly, 
or, to speak more correctly, these tints began to be 
visible on the contained insect, through the in- 
creasing transparency of the pupa-skin. The next 
morning, early, I looked at it, just as it was burst- 
ing into its new life ,* it attained its perfection in 
the usual way, in about half-an-hour, without any 
injury from its accidental fall ; having been but 
eight days in the pupa state. Whether from the 
caterpillar’s having been bred in confinement, I 
know not, but the butterfly is the smallest indi- 
vidual of the species I have ever seen. 
A day or two since I had the pleasure of dis- 
covering, in a little hollow, beneath a decaying log, 
a nest of our commonest lizard {Agama undu- 
lata)^ vulgarly called here the Scorpion. I con- 
clude that such was the case, from the circum- 
stance of a lizard of this species being in the nest 
when I first observed it. As the reptiles never, 
that I know of, sit on their eggs, or visit them after 
their deposition, I presume that these had just been 
laid by the parent. The eggs were four in num- 
ber, oval in shape, and about half- an -inch in 
length, of a dull dirty white. The shell, or enve- 
lop, was tough, like a leathery sac, and upon cut- 
ting one open, first there issued a quantity of clear 
glaire, and then the yelk, which in consistence and 
colour much resembled the brain of birds, being 
white with reddish streaks. 
The spring is peculiarly the season of flowers, 
and comparatively few are now seen. Some, how- 
ever, appear in succession, a few of which I shall 
