AFFECTION OF INSECTS FOR THEIR YOUNG. 291 



dug in the sand. Then removing a pellet of earth from its 

 mouth, it descended into the cavity, and, presently returning, 

 dragged along with it the caterpillar. After staying awhile 

 it again ascended, then rolled pieces of earth into the hole, at 

 intervals scratching the dust into it like a dog with its fore 

 feet, and entering it as if to press down and consolidate the 

 mass, flying also once or twice to an adjoining fir-tree, pos- 

 sibly to procure resin for agglutinating the whole. Having 

 filled the burrow to a level with the surrounding earth so as 

 to conceal the entrance, it took two fir-leaves lying at hand, 

 and placed them near the orifice as if to mark the place. — 

 Such is the anecdote left on record by our illustrious coimtry- 

 man, of whose accuracy of observation there can be no doubt. ^ 

 Who that reads it can refrain from joining in the reflection 

 which it calls from him, " Quis hcec non mihi miretur et stu- 

 peat 9 Quis hujusmodi opera mercB machin(B possit attribuere? '"^ 

 I myself, when walking with a friend some months ago, ob- 

 served nearly similar manoeuvres performed by another 

 hymenopterous insect which may be called a spider-wasp 

 (Pompilus)^ which attracted our attention as it was dragging 

 a spider to its cell. The attitude in which it carried its prey, 

 namely with its feet constantly upwards ; its singular mode of 

 walking, which was backwards, except for a foot or two Avhen 

 it went forwards, moving by jerks and making a sort of pause 

 every few steps ; and the astonishing agility with which, not- 

 withstanding its heavy burthen, it glided over or between the 

 grass, weeds, and other numerous impediments in the rough 

 path along which it passed — together formed a spectacle 

 which we contemplated with admiration. The distance which 

 we thus observed it to traverse was not less than twenty-seven 

 feet, and great part of its journey had probably been per- 

 formed before we saw it. Once or twice, when we first no- 

 ticed it, it laid down the spider, and making a small circuit 



1 The Rev. Dr. Sutton of Norwich made similar observations upon the pro- 

 ceedings of this insect in his garden for two successive seasons. 



2 Rai. Hist. Ins. 254. For an interesting account of the procedures of a 

 female of this species in dragging a very large spider up the nearly perpendicular 

 side of a sand-bank at least twenty feet high, as well as of other curious facts in 

 the economy of sand- wasps, the reader is referred to the very excellent " Essay 

 on the Indigenous Fossorial Hymenoptera," by W. E, Shuckard, Esq. p. 77, &:c. 



u 2 



