LETTERS FROM ALABAMA.. 275 
with great length of stride, and with rapidity, 
thongh awkwardly. The insect^ wdieii touched 
or annoyed, turns up the tail over its back, in a 
threatening attitude, which has given it a reputa- 
tion for being highly venomous — an altogether er- 
roneous notion. 
This specimen was a female, and laid several 
eggs while I had it. These were about as large 
as sweet-peas, oval, somewhat flattened, partly 
black and partly whitish, with a curious arched 
dome, made of transparent net-work, thrown over 
one e^remity, which is flat, with a kind of rim. 
This little vaulted chamber looks like the lantern 
of a light-house. 
Another species, about half as long as this, and 
no thicker than whipcord, of a pale green hue 
{Bacteria linearis)^ when touched, jumps head- 
long, like the Pliryganem^ and stretching out its two 
fore-legs parallel to the antennge, and close to these 
organs, remains motionless, trusting, doubtless, to 
its exact similitude to a slender green twig broken 
off for eluding the observation of its enemies. It 
can, however, run pretty fast, when it chooses to 
take to its heels. 
Lately I had occasion to allude to the Great 
Eagle Owl, a giant among birds; I have just met 
with one of the same tribe, no bigger than a thrush, 
yet in all respects as truly an owl as the other, 
a cat-faced, long-eared, moon-eyed, soft-plumaged, 
splashed and speckled night-walker. It was the 
little Mottled Owl {8trix nmvia). I met with him 
in this way. Going into an old deserted house, 
I saw, on one of the beams, by the wall, this little 
type of wisdom, which, frightened by my intrusion, 
flew from side to side, alighting generally at every 
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