THE PLEASURES OF A NATURALIST 



of our small solitary wasps that seemed to want 

 to occupy the chair. It held a small worm in 

 its legs. She would "shoo" it away, only to see 

 it back in a few seconds. I assured her that it 

 did not want to sting her, but that its nest was 

 somewhere in the chair. And, sure enough, as 

 soon as she quieted down, it entered a small 

 opening in the end of one of the chair arms, and 

 deposited its worm, and presently was back with 

 another, and then a third and a fourth; and 

 before the day was done it came with little pellets 

 of mud and sealed up the opening. 



II 



My morning walk up to the beech wood often 

 brings me new knowledge and new glimpses of 

 nature. This morning I saw a hummingbird 

 taking its bath in the big dewdrops on a small 

 ash-tree. I have seen other birds bathe in the 

 dew or raindrops on tree foliage, but did not 

 before know that the hummer bathed at all. 



I also discovered that the webs of the little 

 spiders in the road, when saturated with moisture, 

 as they were from the early fog this morning, 

 exhibit prismatic tints. Every thread of the web 

 was strung with minute spherules of moisture, 

 and they displayed all the tints of the rainbow. 

 In each of them I saw one abutment of a tiny 

 rainbow. When I stepped a pace or two to the 



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