BRITISH BUTTERFLIES 



fly's preserve, I find one of the grey robbers engaged 

 in sucking the juices from the body of a small, wasp- 

 like insect. Though effectual in screening the drone- 

 fly from harm, the mimicry of Nature has evidently 

 been insufficient to preserve the robber's victim. As 

 is usually the case, the robber-fly may have struck its 

 prey while both were on the wing, and when the pro- 

 tective colouring of the wasp-fly which fulfils its 

 purpose chiefly as the creature rests on a yellow flower- 

 was of little avail. 



The diligent wasps are still abroad in the fields, and 

 are engaged, like the bees, in providing for their winter 

 wants. As I pass a fallen tree-trunk, an angry buzz 

 warns me that I have started one of these insects 

 while at some important task. The wasp circles several 

 times about my head ; then, reassured, flies to the 

 prostrate tree, seeks a place where the bark has been 

 stripped off by the wind, and begins to collect wood- 

 pulp, with which, undoubtedly, to repair her nest. 

 A leaf-cutter bee can be heard as she shears through 

 the harder portions of the leaves ; and, similarly, the 

 sound produced by the jaws of the wasp, while she 

 patiently tears away minute fragments of pulp, is at 

 once noticeable as I stoop to watch this skilled mechanic 

 of the hedgerow. The wood is hard ; her labour diffi- 

 cult ; and a considerable time elapses before she has 

 gathered sufficient for one journey to her nest. 



112 



