More Hunting Wasps 



Ishment and reenters her dwelling. In vain 

 do I try my two Pompili alternately and 

 change the burrow; I do not succeed in ob- 

 serving anything else. Certain conditions 

 not realized by my stratagems are lacking 

 to complete the tragedy. 



Discouraged by the repetition of my fu- 

 tile attempts, I throw up the game, the 

 richer however by one fact of some value : 

 the Calicurgus, without, the least fear, de- 

 scends into the Tarantula's den and dis- 

 lodges her. I imagine that things happen in 

 the same fashion outside my cages. When 

 expelled from her dwelling, the Spider is 

 more timid and more vulnerable to attack. 

 Moreover, while hampered by a narrow 

 shaft, the operator would not wield her lan- 

 cet with the precision called for by her de- 

 signs. The bold irruption shows us once 

 again, more plainly than the tussles on my 

 table, the Lycosa's reluctance to sink her 

 fangs into her enemy's body. When the two 

 are face to face at the bottom of the lair, 

 then or never is the moment to have it out 

 with the foe. The Tarantula is in her own 

 house, with all its conveniences; every nook 

 and corner of the bastion is familiar to her. 

 The intruder's movements are hampered by 

 her ignorance of the premises. Quick, my 

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