212 THE BOOK OF A NATURALIST 
rim, but let one begin to suck and he was up in 
arms in a moment. 
The question that occurred to me was: How 
much of all this behaviour could be set down to 
instinct and how much to intelligence and temper? 
The wasp certainly has a waspish disposition, a 
quick resentment, and is most spiteful and tyran- 
nical towards other inoffensive insects. He is a 
slayer and devourer of them, too, as well as a 
feeder with them on nectar and sweet juices; but 
when he kills, and when the solitary wasp paralyses 
spiders, caterpillars, and various insects and stores 
them in cells to provide a horrid food for the 
grubs which will eventually hatch from the still 
undeposited eggs, the wasp then acts automatically, 
or by instinct, and is driven, as it were, by an 
extraneous force. In a case like the one of the 
wasp’s behaviour on the pear, and in innumerable 
other cases which one may read of or see for him- 
self, there appears to be a good deal of the element 
of mind. Doubtless it exists in all insects, but 
differs in degree; .and some Orders appear to be 
more intelligent than others. Thus, any person 
accustomed to watch insects closely and _ note 
their little acts would probably say that there is 
less mind in the beetles and more in the Hymen- 
optera than in other insects; also that in the last- 
named Order the wasps rank highest. 
The scene in the orchard also served to remind 
me of a host of wasps, greatly varying in size, 
colour, and habits, although in their tyrannical 
