1 66 The Nahiralist in La Plata. 



wantedj and spitefully made up its mind to stay 

 where it was. The leaf-cutter then gave up the 

 contest. Suddenly rising up into the air, it hovered, 

 hawk-like, above the Monedula for a moment, then 

 pounced down on its back, and clung there, 

 furiously biting, until its animosity was thoroughly 

 appeased ; then it flew off, leaving the other 

 master of the field certainly, but greatly discom- 

 posed, and perhaps seriously injured about the 

 base of the wings. I was rather surprised that 

 they were not cut quite off, for a leaf-cutting bee 

 can use its teeth as deftly as a tailor can his 

 shears. 



Doubtless to bees, as to men, revenge is sweeter 

 than honey. But, in the face of mental science, 

 can a creature as low down in the scale of organiza- 

 tion as a leaf-cutting bee be credited with anything 

 so intelligent and emotional as deliberate anger and 

 revenge, " which implies the need of retaliation to 

 satisfy the feelings of the person (or bee) offended ?" 

 According to Bain {Mental and Moral Science) only 

 the highest animals — stags and bulls he mentions — 

 can be credited with the developed form of anger, 

 which he describes as an excitement caused by pain, 

 reaching the centres of activity, and containing an 

 impulse knowingly to inflict suffering on another 

 sentient being. Here, if man only is meant, the 

 spark is perhaps accounted for, but not the barrel 

 of gunpowder. The explosive material is, however, 

 found in the breast of nearly every living creature. 

 The bull — ranking high according to Bain, though 

 I myself should place him nearly on a level mentally 



