114 
CONTENT. 
having flo’wn in at the open windows between sunset 
and sunrise. 
One evening near the end of June, I was return- 
ing to Content from a visit to the Kepp. The sun 
had already gone down into the wide Caribbean Sea 
that spread out before and almost beneath me ; and 
the little peak-like clouds, that always appear like so 
many islets on the horizon after his departure, were 
beginning to lose the brilliancy of their golden 
borders, when I entered a part of the road where the 
beauteous scene was suddenly shut out by the lofty 
woods towering on either side. The trees nearly 
met overhead, so as almost to exclude the little day- 
light that yet lingered in the sky, when my attention 
was attracted to what at first appeared an Urania in 
the air ; but which I presently perceived, by the 
broad-tailed processes of the wings, to be a Cydimon, 
Its manners were singular, and unlike those of any 
Moth or Butterfly that I had ever seen ; so that I 
drew up awhile to watch it. It hovered in one spot 
high in the air, immediately over the road, at an ele- 
vation of perhaps twenty-five feet, just in the manner 
of a Syrphus or of some Bees, the front margin of 
the wings strongly and rapidly tremulous ; at inter- 
vals of a few seconds, it gave a single stroke with the 
wings, and darted laterally to a distance of several 
feet. Here it would become instantly stationary as 
before ; and so proceeded, alternately hovering and 
shooting to and fro, without leaving the open space 
between the trees, as long as I remained. 
