MINERS 31 



and covered it with a leaf, the wasp could not 

 find it. 



Kirby and Spence have left us an account of the 

 doings of a Pompilus which one of them saw hauling 

 a spider to its shaft. " The attitude in which it 

 carried its prey, namely, with its feet constantly 

 upwards ; its singular mode of walking, which 

 was backwards, except for a foot or two when it 

 went forwards, moving by jerks and making a sort 

 of pause every few steps ; and the astonishing agility 

 with which, notwithstanding its heavy burden, it 

 glided over or between the grass, weeds, and other 

 numerous impediments in the rough path along 

 which it passed — together formed a spectacle 

 which we contemplated with admiration. The 

 distance which we thus observed it to traverse was 

 not less than twenty-seven feet ; and great part 

 of its journey had probably been performed before 

 we saw it. Once or twice, when we first noticed 

 it, it laid down the spider, and making a small 

 circuit, returned and took it up again. But for 

 the ensuing twenty or twenty-five feet it never 

 stopped, but proceeded in a direct line to its 

 burrow with the utmost speed. When opposite 

 the hole, which was in a sand- bank by the wayside, it 

 made a sharp turn, as evidently aware of being in 

 the neighbourhood of its abode, but when advanced 

 a little farther laid down its burthen and went to 

 reconnoitre. At first it climbed up the bank, but 

 as if discovering that this was not the direction, 

 soon returned, and after another survey, perceiving 



