64 



serve to paralyze and stupefy her victim without killing it. It 

 remains alive, but lies perfectly still and passive. The insects 

 thus prepared are stowed away in the cells of the wasp as skill- 

 fully and compactly as the m,ost expert packer in our slaughter 

 houses fills his barrels. The farmer in repairing his fences will 

 sometimes notice on splitting a decayed rail or stake, holes exca- 

 vated therein and filled with young spiders, commonly of bright 

 beautiful colors, which lie still and quiet, with only a slight 

 quivering of their limbs, and is puzzled to know why, when thus 

 broken in upon, they do not awake from their lethargy and run 

 away, little suspecting the manner and purpose of their being 

 accumulated there. And similar interesting and curious pheno- 

 mena are passing under the farmer's eye daily, as he pursues his 

 labors — phenomena which, if 



" In nature's infinite hook of secresy 

 A little he can read," 



aid in rendering his vocation beyond all comparison the most 

 pleasant of any pursuit known to man. 



In addition to ants and wasps several kinds of flies are common 

 about cherry and other trees infested with plant-lice, being at- 

 tracted hither, like the ants, for the purpose of sipping the 

 sweet honey dew. One of these which is common during the 

 month of July, and which will be most likely to attract notice, 

 both on account of its prim neat appearance and the briskness of 

 its gait when walking, is a small blackish green fly, with clear 

 glass-likie wings, wliich are crossed by three black bands. With 

 its wings extended horizontally outwards, and often gently 

 waving them up and down, with many abrupt turns it walks 

 with a rapid pace up and down the limbs, and out upon the leaves 

 in the vicinity of colonies of plant-lice. It is so tame that if the 

 hand has hold of a limb it fearlessly walks around upon it. But 

 the most curious part of its movements can only be seen with a 

 magnifying glass. Watching its opportunity, when the ants have 

 all left a herd of their cattle, the plant lice, unguarded, it runs 

 in upon them, where they are crowded together as closely as they 

 can stow themselves, and ushig Its four hind legs fur walking 

 and turning around, with its two fore feet it gently scratches 



