the strands to be drawn from their spinnerets by 

 the wind, until they carry sail enough to be lifted 

 off their feet. They fly away thus on the wings 

 of the winds, perhaps carried high above the earth 

 by ascending currents. Lo, the hegira of the 

 spiders ! 



It would appear that the Solitary wasps are more 

 ingenious and self-reliant, and less governed by 

 tradition, than the Social bees and wasps; for I 

 have seen a small black one which was unable to 

 rise on the wing with the large spider it was 

 carrying, finally drag it up the trunk of an oak to 

 the height of seven feet and from that vantage fly 

 away. Such an one pulled a spider much larger 

 than herself up on my knee and left it there, 

 paralyzed but alive, while she made explorations, 

 after which she returned and took it away. As I 

 was making some notes at the time with reference 

 to wasps, the incident made a pleasant impression, 

 quite as though she had taken me into her confi- 

 dence and had gone out of her way to reveal some 

 fafts of her life. 



One day I encountered a sand-wasp which had 

 just stung a wireworm and was dragging it over 

 the ground. The worm, which resembled a brown 



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