S18 WASPS. 



tached. He then took the body part in his 

 paws, and rose about two feet from the ground 

 with it ; but a gentle breeze wafting the 

 wings of the fly, turned him round in the 

 air, and he settled again with it upon the 

 gravel. I then distinctly observed him cut 

 off, with his mouth, first one of the wings, 

 and then the other, after which he flew away 

 with it unmolested by the wind." 



A Wasp carrying out a dead companion 

 from the nest, if she finds it too heavy, cuts 

 off the head, and carries out the load in two 

 portions. 



Mr. Ray, that great philosopher and 

 admirer of the wonderfril works of creation, 

 relates the following interesting story of a 

 Wasp: 



" I observed," says he, '' one of them drag- 

 ging a green caterpillar thrice its own size : it 

 laid this down near the mouth of a burrow 

 that it had made in the ground, then remov- 

 ing a little ball of earth with which it had 

 covered the orifice, it first went down itself, 

 and, after staying a short time, returned, and 

 seizing the caterpillar again, threw it down 

 with him. Then leaving it there, it came 



