IX ADVANCED THEORIES 127 



the wasp chews repeatedly to reduce into a pap 

 for the larvae to feast on. I have tried to bring up 

 larvae myself on fly -paste. The exf>eriment was 

 tried on a nest of Polistes gallica, the wasp which 

 fixes her little rose-shaped nest of gray paper cells 

 on the bough of some shrub. My kitchen apparatus 

 was a piece of marble slab, on which I crushed up 

 the fly-paste after cleaning my game — in other 

 words, having taken away the parts which were too 

 tough — wings and feet ; and the feeding-spoon was a 

 slender straw, at the end of which, going from cell 

 to cell, I handed the food to larvae, which opened 

 their mouths just like young birds in a nest. I did 

 just the same and succeeded just as well in the days 

 when I used to bring up broods of sparrows — that 

 joy of childhood ! All went on as well as heart 

 could wish as long as my patience held out against 

 the trials of a bringing up so absorbing and full of 

 small cares. 



The obscurity of the enigma is replaced by the 

 full light of truth, thanks to the following observa- 

 tion, made with all the leisure that a strict precision 

 demands. In the first days of October two great 

 clumps of blossoming asters at the door of my study 

 became the rendezvous of a quantity of insects, 

 among which the hive bee and Eristalis tenax were 

 the most numerous. A gentle murmur arose from 

 them, like that of which Virgil wrote, " Saepe levi 

 somnum suadebit inire susurro." But if the poet 

 finds in it only an invitation to slumber, the 

 naturalist finds a subject for study ; these small folk 

 luxuriating on the last flowers of the year may 

 perhaps afford him some new information. So I 



