The Mason-Wasps 



spicacity. We will confine ourselves for 

 the moment to the three cases which I have 

 mentioned. The Pelopaeus goes on storing 

 Spiders for an egg that has been removed; 

 she perseveres in making hunting-trips that 

 are henceforth useless; she hoards victuals 

 that are destined to nourish nothing; she 

 multiplies her battues to fill with game a 

 larder which is forthwith emptied by my 

 tweezers; lastly, she closes, with every cus- 

 tomary care, a cell that no longer contains 

 anything whatever: she sets her seal on 

 emptiness. She does even absurder things: 

 she plasters the site of her vanished nest, 

 covering an imaginary structure and putting 

 a roof to a house which at the moment is 

 tucked away in my pocket. In the case 

 of the Great Peacock, the caterpillar, de- 

 spite the certain loss of the coming Moth, in- 

 stead of beginning all over again the mouth 

 of the Eel-pot cut down by my scissors, 

 quietly continues its spinning, without in any 

 way modifying the regular course of the 

 work; and, when the time comes for making 

 the last tiers of defensive filaments, it erects 

 them upon the dangerous breach, but ne- 

 glects to rebuild the ruined portion of the 

 barricade. Indifferent to the indispens- 

 able, it occupies itself with the superfluous. 

 128 



