74 WASP STUDIES AFIELD 



of plans, but for some reason she always returned to the 

 one of her first choice. 



Eventually she mastered the art needed and her persever- 

 ence was rewarded with success ; at last she got the spider up 

 to the hole. However, the ledge in front of the hole was 

 so narrow that it would tumble off just as fast as she got 

 it there. It seemed that she had an aversion to dragging 

 the spider into the hole without first going in herself, and 

 this seemed impossible. She later learned to place or better 

 to say succeeded in placing the spider just over the mouth 

 of the burrow, and there it hung while she very dextrously 

 wedged her way into the hole, to see if all was right, before 

 entering with the prey. But here new disaster came; she 

 could let the spider lie on the outside over the hole while 

 she squeezed herself in, but when she came out her head 

 butted against the spider and down it went again into the 

 valley below. Her patience and strength seemed inexhaust- 

 ible; we had long ere this lost all estimate of the number of 

 times she had skilfully carried her spider up this precipitous 

 bank. Three times in succession this last mishap occurred, 

 when finally (and this may have been accidental, but we 

 shall always hold it as a case of profiting by experience), 

 she took up her spider, carried it some distance to a point 

 where the bank sloped gradually, and climbed up, walking 

 backward and pulling the spider with her ; then she dragged 

 it back horizontally and let it rest on a ledge three inches 

 directly above the hole. Next she went into the nest, ex- 

 amined it once more, and came out and got her booty. Here 

 we thought the insect showed wonderful intelligence; it 

 would be easier to carry her spider down three inches to 

 the hole than up eighteen inches and still it would be within 

 easy view while, she went for her final inspection of the 

 hole, which she deemed so necessary. This arrangement, 

 we thought, would obviate that examination and the subse- 

 quent sliding down of the spider into the chasm below. 



