THE WASPS. 297 



flew off unshackled with its burden. This often-told and 

 much wondered at story really contains nothing exceptional, 

 nothing that would be beyond the intellectual powers of a 

 wasp. And indeed similar observations have been repeatedly 

 made. Herr H. Lowenfels, of Coburg, writes to the author 

 under date of November 23, 1875 : " Walking on a sunny 

 but windy autumn day I saw something hovering in the air 

 and carried quickly by the wind in a slanting direction to 

 the ground, which struck me as curious. It was not a leaf 

 nor anything like one. Wont to pass carelessly by no natural 

 phenomenon, however trivial, I followed the object to 

 unriddle the puzzle and went to the spot whereon it had 

 fallen. I here found a robber-wasp busied in lifting from 

 the ground a large fly which it had apparently killed. It 

 succeeded indeed in its attempt, but had scarcely raised its 

 prey a few inches above the ground when the wind caught 

 the wings of the dead fly and they began to act like a sail. 

 The wasp was clearly unable to resist this action, and was 

 blown a little distance in the direction of the wind, where- 

 upon it let itself fall to the ground with its prize. It now 

 made no more attempts to fly, but with eager industry pulled 

 off with its teeth the fly's wings which hindered it in its 

 object. When this was quite done it seized the fly, which 

 was heavier than itself, and flew off with it untroubled 

 on its journey through the air at a height of about five feet. I 

 abstain from any reflexions on this accurately observed fact." 

 Herr Albert Schluter, of Sisterdale (Kendall county), in 

 Texas, saw a somewhat similar incident, and communicated 

 it to the author as follows, under the date June 30, 1876: 

 " In the last year of the civil war, in the spring of 1865, I 

 sat angling, as almost daily, in the Podernales (?), five miles 

 from Fredericksburg, in the shade of a small wood on the 

 bank. In the sand near me a colony of ant-lions had 

 settled, and I now and then pushed a passing insect into 

 their funnels. Suddenly with piercing alarum a cicada of 

 exceptional size fell from above between the funnels, and 

 shook down and spoilt a number of them by its convulsive 

 movements, while it continued its cries. Immediately after 

 it came a pursuing hornet of the size and color of the Ger- 

 man (we have here one twice as large, which easily carries 

 off a full-grown tobacco-caterpillar), threw itself upon it 

 and stung it, it seemed, to death, for the noise and more- 



