THE ATTAS AT HOME 175 



casional trogon swooping across — a glowing, 

 feathered comet of emerald, azurite and gold; 

 or, slowly drifting in and out among the vines 

 and coming to rest with waving wings, a j^ellow 

 and red spotted Ithomiid, — or was it a Heli- 

 coniid or a Danaiid? — with such bewildering 

 models and marvelous mimics it was impossible 

 to tell without capture and close examination. 

 Giant, purple tarantula-hawks hummed past, 

 scanning the leaves for their prey. 



Another class of glade haunters were those 

 who came strictly on business, — plasterers and 

 sculptors, who found wet clay ready to their 

 needs. Great golden and rufous bees blundered 

 down and gouged out bucketsful of mud; while 

 slender-bodied, dainty, ebony wasps, after much 

 fastidious picking of place, would detach a tiny 

 bit of the whitest clay, place it in their snuff- 

 box holder, clean their feet and antenna, run 

 their rapier in and out and delicately take to 

 wing. 



Little black trigonid bees had their special 

 quarry, a small deep valley in the midst of a 

 waste of interlacing Bad Lands, on the side of a 

 precipitous butte. Here they picked and shov- 

 eled to their hearts' content, plastering their 



