The Volucella 



descend from above. That public granary, 

 lavishly stocked by death, will become a busy 

 factory of fresh life. Who are the guests 

 summoned to the banquet ? 



If the Wasps flew away, carrying the dead 

 or sickly grubs with them* and dropped them 

 on the ground round about their home, those 

 banqueters would be, first and foremost, the 

 insect-eating birds, the Warblers, all of 

 whom are lovers of small game. In this 

 connection, we will allow ourselves a brief 

 digression. 



Everybody knows with what jealous in- 

 tolerance the Nightingales occupy each his 

 own cantonment. Neighbourly intercourse 

 among them is tabooed. The males fre- 

 quently exchange defiant couplets at a .di- 

 stance; but, should the Challenged party draw 

 near, the challenger makes him clear off. 

 Now, not far from my house, in a scanty 

 clump of holly-oaks which would barely give 

 a wood-cutter the wherewithal to make a 

 dozen faggots, I used, all through the spring, 

 to hear such full-throated warbling of Night- 

 ingales that the songs of these virtuosi, all 

 giving voice at once and with no attempt at 

 order, degenerated into a deafening hubbub. 



Why did those passionate devotees of soli- 

 tude come and settle in such large numbers 

 289 



