206 NATURES STORY OF THE YEAR 



window-sill, and the mud was full of maggots. 

 He wondered what sort of a grub lived on dry- 

 mud ! 



During six seasons another species of solitary 

 wasp was observed by me in a garden. Its name 

 was not ascertained ; but only one of the insects 

 appeared in a season, and it was too nice to kill. 

 It was visible for about a month, and always flew 

 off in the same direction with its prey ; so prob- 

 ably the successive generations nested in the same 

 place. It came for a small sunfly which visited 

 the flowers of some common blue stocks. The 

 wasp would come along unconcernedly and alight 

 on some horizontal leaf, whence it could at once 

 detect any passing insect. It always directly 

 faced anything it wished to watch, and being very 

 agile, it would be constantly turning from side to 

 side in a quick and intelligent manner, watching 

 the insect life around. When a sunfly passed, 

 even at the distance of two feet, the wasp would 

 rise slowly and steal after it, until the fly had 

 settled on a flower. Then the wasp would 

 stealthily approach it from the rearward until 

 within four or five inches' distance ; and then, after 



