A SAND QUARRY IN WINTER. 48 



one of these insect masses reminds me much of the 

 4 pellets ' which are found so abundantly in owls' nests, 

 and which are composed of the skin, bones, and teeth 

 of mice, and the hard limbs and wing-cases of beetles. 



The black lumps are all composed of the same 

 materials, so we pass to one of the brown masses. No 

 opalescent patches of colour betray the presence of 

 wings, but projecting from it on every side are long, 

 crooked legs, covered with sharp, brown, curved spikes, 

 showing in a moment that they are the legs of spiders. 

 All these brown masses are alike ; the spiders are ap- 

 parently of the same species, and all nearly the same 

 size. After examining a considerable number of speci- 

 mens, I can only find two materials for these masses, 

 namely, spiders and flies, and in no instance is there a 

 spider among the flies, or a fly among the spiders. Now 

 why were these creatures buried in the bottom of these 

 tunnels, and why are they so shrivelled and dismem- 

 bered ? They were placed there by the sand-wasp as 

 food for her future young, just as the Kentish bee 

 stores her burrow with pollen. Sand- wasps in all their 

 stages of existence are carnivorous, and so it is neces- 

 sary to supply the young with the appropriate animal 

 food. 



There are very many species of sand-wasps, and each 

 chooses some particular insect as food for its young. 

 Many prefer flies, some furnish their young with aphides, 

 and others choose beetles. Even the little hard-bodied 

 turnip-beetles (turnip-fleas, as they are often called, on 



