A BEE-HUNTER 159 



midst of the tumult, the killer is killed. Who has struck 

 the blow ? Certainly not the turbulent but pacific 

 Eristales ; it was one of the bees, which by chance had 

 thrust truly in the mellay. When and how ? I do not 

 know. This accident is unique in my experience ; but 

 it throws a light upon the question. The bee is capable 

 of withstanding its adversary ; it can, with a thrust of 

 its envenomed needle, kill the would-be killer. That it 

 does not defend itself more skilfully when it falls into 

 the hands of its enemy is due to ignorance of fencing, 

 not to the weakness of the arm. And here again arises, 

 more insistently than before, the question I asked but 

 now : how is it that the Philanthus has learned for pur- 

 poses of attack what the bee has not learned for purposes 

 of defence. To this difficulty I see only one reply : the 

 one knows without having learned and the other does not 

 know, being incapable of learning. 



Let us now examine the motives which induce the 

 Philanthus to kill its bee instead of paralysing it. The 

 murder once committed, it does not release its victim 

 for a moment, but holding it tightly clasped with its six 

 legs pressed against its body, it commences to ravage the 

 corpse. I see it with the utmost brutality rooting with its 

 mandibles in the articulation of the neck, and often also 

 in the more ample articulation of the corselet, behind the 

 first pair of legs ; perfectly aware of the fine membrane 

 in that part, although it does not take advantage of the 

 fact when employing its sting, although this vulnerable 

 point is the more accessible of the two breaches in the 

 bee's armour. I see it squeezing the bee's stomach, com- 

 pressing it with its own abdomen, crushing it as in a 

 vice. The brutality of this manipulation is striking; it 



