The Hunting Wasps 



other holes lead to fresh disappointments. 

 Clearly, these dainty sportswomen will have 

 none of the game which I offer them. Per- 

 haps they find it uninteresting, not fresh 

 enough. Perhaps, by taking it in my fingers, 

 I have given it some odour which they dis- 

 like. With these epicures, a mere alien touch 

 is enough to produce disgust. 



Should I be more fortunate if I obliged 

 the Cerceris to use her sting in self-defence? 

 I enclosed a Cerceris and a Cleonus in the 

 same bottle and stirred them up by shaking 

 it. The Wasp, with her sensitive nature, 

 was more impressed than the other prisoner, 

 with his dull and clumsy organization; she 

 thought of flight, not of attack. The very 

 parts were interchanged: the Weevil, becom- 

 ing the aggressor, at times seized with his 

 snout a leg of his mortal enemy, who was so 

 greatly overcome with fear that she did not 

 even seek to defend herself. I was at the 

 end of my resources; yet my wish to behold 

 the catastrophe was but increased by the dif- 

 ficulties already experienced. Well, I would 

 try again. 



A bright idea flashed across my mind, 

 entering so naturally into the very heart of 

 the question that it brought hope in its train. 

 38 



