160 WASPS AND THEIR WAYS 



have caught too heavy a prize. Instead of 

 cutting up the insect, the hornet drags it 

 to the foot of a tree, drags it up the trunk 

 to a branch, from which vantage point it is 

 able to fly with its burden. 



Although wasps are very fond of flies, 

 they catch many kinds of insects, and, it 

 would seem, even larger game. There are 

 on record two hunts that outdo all other 

 feats in wasp annals. 



Edward Topsell, who wrote the quaint 

 "History of Four-footed Beasts and Ser- 

 pents," says, — 



"Whilst Pennius was at Peterborough 

 in England, he saw in the wide and open 

 street a Hornet pursuing a Sparrow, whom 

 when he wounded with his sting, he fell 

 down dead to the ground, and with the 

 admiration of all that beheld them, he 

 suck't out and filled himself with the blood 

 of the slain prey." 



Again Topsell claims to have seen the 

 same thing. 



