1 1 6 The Hunting IV asps 



straight down upon the ceiUng of the Sphex ! 

 A shudder ran through me as though I myself 

 had received the impress of the hobnailed sole. 



When the conscripts had passed, I proceeded 

 to save what I could of the ruined burrow's 

 contents. The Sphex was there, crushed and 

 mangled ; and with her not only the Locust 

 whom I had seen carried down, but two others 

 as well, making three Locusts in all instead of 

 the usual Crickets. What was the reason of 

 this curious change ? Were there no Crickets 

 in the neighbourhood of the burrow and was 

 the distressed Wasp making up for them with 

 Locusts : a case of Hobson's choice, in fact ? 

 I hesitate to believe it, for there was nothing 

 about the neighbourhood to warrant the sup- 

 position that the favourite game was absent. 

 Another, luckier than I, will unriddle this 

 new and unknown mystery. The fact remains 

 that the Yellow-winged Sphex, either from 

 imperious necessity or for some reason that 

 escapes me, sometimes replaces her chosen prey, 

 the Cricket, with another prey, the Locust, pre- 

 senting no external resemblance to the first, 

 but itself also an Orthopteron. 



The observer on whose authority Lepeletier 

 de Saint-Fargeau says a word or two touching 

 the habits of this same Sphex witnessed a 

 similar storing away of Locusts in Africa, near 



