A Parasite of the Bembex 



the skin of the belly and chucking them out 

 of doors, she placidly tolerates them. 



Tolerates them, did I say? Why, she 

 feeds them, she brings them provisions, hav- 

 ing perhaps for those intruders the same af- 

 fection as for her own larva ! It is a new 

 version of the story of the Cuckoo, but with 

 even more singular circumstances. The 

 theory that the Cuckoo, almost the size of 

 the Sparrow-hawk and wearing the same 

 dress, inspires enough respect to enable him 

 to introduce his egg with impunity into the 

 feeble Warbler's nest and that the latter, 

 in her turn, perhaps overawed by the fear- 

 some appearance of her Toad-faced nurse- 

 ling, accepts and looks after the stranger: 

 this theory has some plausibility. But what 

 should we say if the Warbler turned para- 

 site and, with superb audacity, went and con- 

 fided her eggs to the eyrie of the bird of 

 prey, to the nest of the Sparrow-hawk him- 

 self, the bloodthirsty devourer of War- 

 blers? What should we say if the rapacious 

 Hawk accepted the trust and fondly reared 

 the brood of little birds? And this is ex- 

 actly what the Bembex does, that ravisher of 

 Flies who tenderly nurses other Flies, that 

 huntress who provides food for a quarry 



