20 



A TOTIB EOXTND MT QABDEN. 



fly like herself, but which she wiU never see. She also knows 

 how much nourishment her offspring will require ; but, more 

 richly clothed than the bee, she does not, like her, know how 

 to gather the pollen from flowers, or to make a paste of it 

 with honey. 



She has but one resource, and that resource she is deter- 

 mined to employ — she wiU neither recoil from roguery nor 

 theft to secure the subsistence of her offspring j she has 



TfiE CURYSJS. 



recognised the solitary bee, and she is going to lay her egg in 

 her nest : it wiU hatch sooner than that of the true pro- 

 prietor; then the intruder will eat the provisions so painfully 

 collected for the legitimate child, who, when it is hatched in 

 iU turn, will have nothing to do but to die of hunger. 



There she is at the edge of the hole — she hesitates — she 

 decides — she enters. 



This insect interests me, she is so beautifiil! The other 

 likewise interests me, she is so industrious! But, here she 

 comes back through the air : one would think her a warrior 

 covered with chased armour and a golden cuirass; she buzzes 

 as she comes along. The chrysis has heard the buzzing, 

 which is for her the terrible sound of a war trumpet. She 



