XI THE SCIENCE OF INSTINCT 157 



repeated, and this time before numerous witnesses, 

 for all the household working under the shade of 

 the plane trees formed a circle round the Sphex. They 

 wonder at the audacious tameness of the insect, noways 

 disturbed by the gallery of interested spectators. 

 All are struck by her proud and robust bearing, as, 

 with raised head and the victim's antennae well 

 grasped by her mandibles, she drags after her the 

 enormous burden. I alone among the spectators 

 feel some regret. " Ah, had I but some live ephip- 

 pigers ! " I could not help saying, without the least 

 hope of seeing my wish realised. " Live ephippi- 

 gers ! " replied Emile ; " why, I have some quite 

 fresh, caught this morning." Four steps at a time 

 he flew upstairs to his little study, where barricades 

 of dictionaries enclosed a park wherein was brought 

 up a fine caterpillar of Sphinx euphorbiae. He 

 brought back three ephippigers as good as heart 

 could wish — two females and one male. How came 

 these insects at hand just at the right moment for 

 an experiment vainly tried twenty years before? 

 This is another story. A southern shrike had nested 

 on one of the tall plane trees in the avenue. Some 

 days before the Mistral, the rude wind of our parts, 

 had blown so violently that branches bent as well 

 as reeds, and the nest overturned by the undulations 

 of its branch let fall the four nestlings it contained. 

 The next day I found the brood on the ground — 

 three killed by the fall, the fourth still alive. The 

 survivor was entrusted to Emile, who thrice a day 

 went cricket-hunting on the turf in the neighbour- 

 hood to feed his charge. But crickets are not very 

 large, while the nestling's appetite was. Something 



