n] FOSSORES OR DIGGER-WASPS 9 



and again a pause ensues in the bustling career, and 

 the little creature digs furiously for a few seconds as 

 though desirous of making a burrow ; occasionally she 

 halts and basks with outspread legs upon the warm 

 sunlit sand. Some perseverance is needed if one wishes 

 to witness the complete drama enacted ; many a P. 

 plumbeus will elude one's vigilance and with an extra 

 rapid movement escape from observation. Let me 

 narrate the events of one of my successful trackings : 

 -having selected a specimen whose business-like 

 demeanour seemed to promise a reward I followed 

 on hands and knees her wild career through 

 the tangled marram grass and over bare tracts of 

 sands until at length, after much crawling and more 

 perspiring, I tracked her to her burrow. As she 

 neared home her excitement passed all limits, she 

 leapt repeatedly a few inches in the air, and at last 

 rushed headlong into the burrow; but no sooner in 

 than out again and racing rapidly in all directions 

 round the hole, taking, as I believe, the exact bearings 

 of the spot so as to assist her in returning without 

 waste of time. The survey completed, she dashed 

 off: I rested by the burrow to await events. After 

 about twenty minutes back she came, just put her 

 head into the burrow, and was off again. I now 

 followed her and found that about five feet away she 

 had a spider which she had paralysed with her sting. 

 She went straight from burrow to spider without any 



