ANIMAL BEHAVIOR. 295 



Fargeau, to whom entomology is indebted for so many new 

 facts relative to the manners of hymenopterous insects, has 

 given us a striking account of a contest between the art of one 

 of these parasites (Hedychrum regiwri) and the courage of one 

 of the mason-bees in endeavoring to defend its nest from its 

 attack. The mason-bee had partly finished one of her cells, 

 and flown away to collect a store of pollen and honey. During 

 her absence the female parasitic Hedychrum, after having exam- 

 ined this cell by entering it head foremost, came out again, and 

 walking backwards, had begun to introduce the posterior part 

 of her body into it, preparatory to depositing an egg, when the 

 mason-bee arriving laden with her pollen-paste threw herself 

 upon her enemy, which, availing herself of the means of defence 

 above adverted to, rolled herself up into a compact ball, with 

 nothing but the wings exposed, and equally invulnerable to the 

 stings or the mandibles of her assailant. In one point, however, 

 our little defender of her domicile saw that her insidious foe was 

 accessible ; and, accordingly, with her mandibles cut off her 

 four wings, and let her fall to the ground, and then entering 

 her cell with a sort of inquietude, deposited her store of food, 

 and flew to the fields for a fresh supply ; but scarcely was she 

 gone before the Hedychrum, unrolling herself, and, faithful to 

 her instinct and her object, though deprived of her wings, crept 

 up the wall directly to the cell from whence she had been pre- 

 cipitated, and quietly placed her egg in it against the side below 

 the level of the pollen-paste, so as to prevent the mason-bee 

 from seeing it on her return." 



BEHAVIOR OF NECTURUS. 

 a. Refusal of Food from Fear. 



Our large fresh-water salamander, popularly called mud- 

 puppy, water-dog, hellbender, etc., is another animal that 

 may be profitably studied with reference to its modes of quiet. 

 The first adults which I kept in captivity in a large aquarium 

 refused to eat pieces of raw beef or small fish, whether dead 

 or alive. For months they went on, seemingly entirely indif- 



