THE MINERS 



291 



the neighbourhood, acting upon a superior 

 intellectual development of the individual 

 wasp that does it, who shall 

 say? 



One of these wasps once 

 dug her nest and caught her 

 spider — a large one, which 

 she dragged near her burrow. 



"Presently she went to 

 look at her nest and seemed to be struck 

 with a thought that had already occurred 

 to us, — that it was decidedly too small 

 to hold the spider. Back she went for 

 another survey of her bulky victim, mea- 

 sured it with her eye, without touching 

 it, drew her conclusions, and at once re- 

 turned to the nest and began to make it 

 larger. We had several times seen wasps 

 enlarge their holes when a trial had demon- 

 strated that the spider would not go in, 

 but this seemed a remarkably intelligent 

 use of the comparative faculty. . . . While 

 she was thus employed, the spider was 



