298 THE WASPS. 



ment at once ceased. The murderer walked over its prey, 

 which was considerably larger than itself, grasped its body 

 with its feet, spread out its wings and tried to fly away with 

 it. Its strength was not sufficient, and after many efforts it 

 gave up the attempt. Half a minute went by ; sitting 

 astride on the corpse and motionless only the wings occa- 

 sionally jerking it seems to reflect, and indeed not in vain. 

 A mulberry- tree stood close by, really only a trunk for the 

 top had been broken off, clearly by the last flood of about 

 ten or twelve feet high. The hornet saw this trunk, dragged 

 its prey toilsomely to the foot of it, and then up to the top. 

 Arrived thereat, it rested for a moment, grasped its victim 

 firmly and flew off with it to the prairies. That which it 

 was unable to raise off the ground it could now carry easily 

 once high in the air." 



Th. Meenan (" Proc. of the Acad. of Nat.," Philadelphia, 

 Jan. 22, 1878) observed a very similar case with Vespa 

 maculata. He saw one of these wasps try in vain to raise 

 from the ground a grasshopper it had killed. When all its 

 efforts proved to be in vain, it pulled its prey to a maple- 

 tree, about thirty feet off, mounted it with its prize and 

 flew away from it. " This," adds the writer, " was more 

 than instinct. It was reflexion and judgment, and the 

 judgment was proved to be correct." 



Birds often find the same difficulty, it being very difficult 

 often for them to rise from the ground, but very easy to fly 

 from a height. 



Dr. Ludwig Nagel, of Schmolle, writes : " On a business 

 journey the writer saw an ichneumon-fly (Ichneumon luteus) 

 laden with a large field-spider (Aranea or Tecjenaria agrestis) 

 coming obliquely across the footpath. The spider had 

 already been killed by the bite and the sting of the fly. The 

 latter, which had grasped the spider by the hinder part of 

 the body with its jaws, struggled bravely on, pushing its 

 victim before it. But the weight was too heavy and would 

 go no further. So the fly turned round and went back- 

 wards, pulling the spider after it. Its nest was in a rather 

 hilly, rising grass border. This reached, its march was 

 rendered more difficult by the grass and the sloping ground, 

 and it was often obliged to stop, and sometimes it slipped a 

 little way back again. None the less it finished its journey 

 and pulled its victim into its nest." 



