FRANCIS WILLUGHBY. 91 



length of a pearch, she laid down, and then takes 

 out a little pellet of earth, with which she had 

 stopped the mouth of a small hole like a worm- 

 hole ; then she goes down into it, and staying a 

 very little while, comes up again and draws the 

 eruca down with her into the hole, and there 

 leaves her ; and afterwards not only stops, but 

 fills up the hole, sometimes carrying in little clods, 

 and sometimes scraping dust with her feet, and 

 throwing backward into the hole, and going down 

 after herself to ram it close. 



" Once or twice she flew up into a pine-tree, 

 which grew just over her hole, perhaps to fetch 

 cement. When the hole was full and even with 

 the superficies of the ground about it, she draws 

 two pine-tree leaves and lays them near the mouth 

 of the hole, and flies away. 



Not taking notice that she came any more in 

 three or four days, we digged for the caterpillar, 

 and found it pretty deep. I put it into a box, 

 expecting it would have produced an ichneumon, 

 but it died away and nothing came of it. We 

 lately observed a sort of ichneumon, or rather 

 vespae, which prey upon several sorts of flyes ; 

 when they fly with them, they hold them by the 

 head and carry them under their bellies. These 

 make holes a great depth in the ground, in which 

 they lay their young ones, and feed them with 

 the flies they catch, creeping backwards into the 

 ground, and drawing the flies after them. I sus- 

 pect they at first lay their eggs in the very body 

 of a fly. but one fly being not enough to bring the 



