■^ More Hunting Wasps 



stinct, no ungrateful task — far from it — 

 when we tackle it as it should be tackled: 

 from the front, with the aid of facts, and not 

 from the flank, with the aid of arguments. 

 Arguments are here out of place, if we wish 

 to maintain our position in the light. Be- 

 sides, where would they lead us? To evo- 

 king the instincts of bygone ages, which have 

 not been preserved by fossilization? Any 

 such appeal to the dim and distant past is 

 quite unnecessary, if we wish for variations 

 of instinct, leading by degrees, according to 

 you, from one instinct to another; the pre- 

 sent world offers us plenty. 



Each operator has her particular method, 

 her particular kind of game, her particular 

 points of attack and tricks of fence; but in 

 the midst of this variety of talents we ob- 

 serve, immutable and predominant, the per- 

 fect accordance of the surgery with the vic- 

 tim's organization and the larva's needs. 

 The art of one will not explain the art of 

 another, no less exact in the delicacy of its 

 rules. Each operator has her own tactics, 

 which tolerate no apprenticeship. The Am- 

 mophila, the Scolia, the Philanthus and the 

 others all tell us the same thing: none can 

 leave descendants if she be not from the out- 

 L set the skilful paralyser or slayer that she is 



