JUNE 135 



victim was quite motionless, stung into paralysis and, 

 it is to be hoped, insensibility by its captor. 



From time to time the wasp laid her burden 

 down, not to rest, but to take circling flights as if to 

 make sure of her bearings, and then resumed her 

 journey. I must have followed her for about fifty 

 yards before she came to a small bare place in the 

 heath, differing no whit, so far as my poor faculties 

 could detect, from scores of similar patches all around. 

 It became evident that this was her goal. She laid 

 the caterpillar down, ran about it with rapidly vibrating 

 wings, flew round in a few circles, finally alighting on 

 the bare patch. With wings still in motion she ran to 

 a certain spot and began lifting with her mandibles 

 some small bits of quartz to one side from what turned 

 out to be the burrow and cell which she had dug before 

 going a-hunting and had carefully concealed with the 

 fragments of quartz. When the passage was clear, she 

 ran to the caterpillar, made one more short scouting 

 flight and then seized her prey near the head, not this 

 time placing her body over it, but standing clear in 

 front of it, and proceeded to back towards the burrow, 

 dragging the caterpillar after her. She went into the 

 burrow tail first, and presently both hunter and game 

 were out of sight. 



As this was the first chance I had ever enjoyed of 

 seeing ATriTnophila at work, I was strongly tempted to 

 explore the cell, wondering whether more than one cater- 

 pillar had been stored in it. But such was my admira- 

 tion for the clever huntress that I could not find it in my 

 heart to destroy her simple architecture. Moreover, I 



