QUESTIONS FOR THE NATURALIST. 209 



scarcely lift above the ground, (b) Did the 

 ichneumon fly deposit its eggs in the spider, 

 knowing that the latter would be used for food 

 for the young of the wasp and that its young 

 could then readily attack those of the wasp, or 

 is the spider the true host of this species of ich- 

 neumid? (c) If the latter, does the ichneumid 

 usually wait until the spider has become the 

 prey of a wasp before attempting to place its 

 eggs? At all events the tragedy with its three 

 actors was to me a most interesting one and well 

 illustrates what I have before written that for 

 the naturalist, when he meets a new or compar- 

 atively unknown acquaintance among the lowly 

 objects of nature, questions arise regarding its 

 life-history and relationship to other forms 

 which are to him more interesting, instructive 

 and profitable to study than any of those relat- 

 ing only to the words and deeds of man. 



Reaching the camp at nine o'clock, I began to 

 pare apples out in the open beneath the shadow 

 of my oak tree, out where the breezes could fan 

 my brow; pare apples for apple-sauce, one of 

 the best of all sauces to tickle the palate when 

 on an outing. The odor of the Astrachan ap- 

 ples filled the air for rods around and soon 

 proved attractive to yellow-jackets, as did also 

 the lemonade which I made for dinner. Three 

 were in the basin soon after it was emptied, sip- 



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