AMMOPHILA AND HER CATERPILLARS. 7 



though she were made of thistledown and were too light to re- 

 main upon the ground. We followed her easily, and as she was 

 in full view nearly all of the time we had every hope of wit- 

 nessing the capture, but in this we were destined to disappoint- 

 ment. We had been in attendance on her for about a quarter 

 of an hour when, after disappearing for a few moments under 

 the thick purslane leaves, she came out with a green caterpillar. 

 We had missed the wonderful sight of the paralyzer at work, 

 but we had no time to bemoan our loss for she was making off 

 at so rapid a pace that we were well occupied in keeping up with 

 her. She hurried along with the same motion as before, unem- 

 barrassed by the weight o^ her victim. (Plate III.) Twice she 

 dropped it and circled over it a moment before taking it again. 

 For sixty feet she kept to open ground, passing between two rows 

 of bushes, but at the end of this division of the garden, she 

 plunged, very much to our dismay, into a field of standing corn. 

 Here we had great difficulty in following her, since far from 

 keeping to her former orderly course, she zigzagged among the 

 plants in the most bewildering fashion, although keeping a gen- 

 eral direction of northeast. It seemed quite impossible that she 

 could know where she was going. The corn rose to a height 

 of six feet all around us; the ground was uniform in appear- 

 ance, and, to our eyes, each group of corn stalks was just like 

 every other group, and yet, without pause or hesitation, the 

 little creature passed quickly along, as we might through the 

 familiar streets of our native town. 



At last she paused and laid her burden down. Ah ! the power 

 that has led her is not a blind, mechanically perfect instinct, 

 for she has traveled a little too far. She must go back one row 

 into the open space that she has already crossed, although not 

 just at this point. Nothing like a nest is visible to us. The 

 surface of the ground looks all alike, and it is with exclamations 

 of wonder that we see our little guide lift two pellets of earth 

 which have served as a covering to a small opening running 

 down into the ground. 



The way being thus prepared she hurries back with her wings 



