222 The Hunting Wasps 



the mistral, which sometimes uproots both 

 beech and pine ; that crests where the north 

 wind sends the snow-flakes whirhng for six 

 months in succession ; that peaks wrapped for 

 the best part of the year in cold cloud-fogs, 

 can be adopted as a winter refuge by an insect 

 enamoured of the sun ? One might as well 

 suggest that it should hibernate among the 

 ice-floes of the North Cape. No, it is not here 

 that the Hairy Ammophila can spend the cold 

 season. The group which I observed was only 

 passing through. At the first hint of rain, a 

 hint that escaped us but could not escape the 

 insect, which is so highly sensitive to the 

 atmospheric variations, the band of travellers 

 had taken shelter under a stone, waiting for 

 the rain to stop before resuming their flight. 

 Whence did they come ? Whither were they 

 bent ? 



In this same month of August, and still more 

 in September, we are visited, in our warm, 

 olive-clad regions, by caravans of little birds 

 of passage descending by easy stages from the 

 countries where thev have wooed and loved, 

 countries cooler, more thickly wooded, less wild 

 than ours, where they have reared their broods. 

 They arrive almost on a fixed day, in an un- 

 varying order, as though guided by the dates of 

 a calendar known only to themselves. They 



