BEES AND WASPS — GENERAL INTELLiaENCE. 193 



and tail of another was seen protruding. This, too, I watched 

 ■with much interest, and exactly the same process was repeated 

 as in the case of the first. I held the apple in my hand until 

 some ten or a dozen wasps had made their exit in the same 

 identical manner in each individual case. I then threw down 

 the apple, inside of which, however, there were still apparently 

 a good many wasps. 



It seemed to me at the time, and I have always felt since, 

 that the wasps coming out of the apple backwards, brandishing 

 their stings as a defensive weapon against possible enemies, 

 whom of course they were not able to see, was an evidence of 

 what would be called thought and reflection in the case of 

 human beings. It seems to me that these wasps must have re- 

 flected that if they came out of the narrow aperture in the apple, 

 which was their only possible means of ready egress, in the 

 usual manner, head first, they might be taken at a disadvantage 

 by a possible enemy, and destroyed in detail. They, therefore, 

 with great prudence and foresight, came out of the apple back- 

 wards, protecting themselves by means of their chief offensive 

 and defensive weapons, their stings, which, according to their 

 normal method of locomotion, would have been useless to them 

 as long as they were making theii- exit. 



With regard to the tactics displayed by hunting wasps 

 I may quote the following cases : — 



Mr. Seth Green, writing to the New York World of May 

 14, says that one morning when he was watching a spider's 

 nest, a wasp alighted within an inch or two of the nest, on the 

 side opposite the opening. Creeping noiselessly around towards 

 the entrance of the nest the wasp stopped a little short of it, 

 and for a moment remained perfectly quiet ; then reaching out 

 one of his antennae he wriggled it before the opening and with- 

 drew it. This overture had the desired eflTect, for the boss of 

 the nest, as large a spider as one ordinarily sees, came out to 

 see what was wrong and to set it to rights. No sooner had the 

 spider emerged to that point at which he was at the worst dis- 

 advantage than the wasp, with a quick movement, thrust his 

 sting into the body of his foe, killing him easily and almost in- 

 stantly. The experiment was repeated on the part of the wasp, 

 and when there was no response from the inside he became 

 satisfied, probably, that he held the fort. At all events, he pro- 

 ceeded to enter the nest and slaughter the young spiders, which 

 were afterwards lugged off* one at a time. 



O 



