278 
Correspondence . 
[April, 
lees and carry their mutilated bodies to their young.—* Didt. 
Raison,’ tome i„ p. 152.” Further he says, “ One circumstance 
I shall relate which fell under my own eye, and showed the 
power of reason in a wasp as it is exercised among men A 
wasp on a gravel-walk had caught a fly nearly as large as him- 
self Kneeling on the ground, I observed him separate the tail 
and the head from the body part, to which the wings were 
attached. He then took the body part in his paws, and rose 
about 2 feet from the ground with it; but a gentle breeze wafting 
the wings of the fly turned him round in the air, and he settled 
again with his prey on the gravel. I then distinctly “^served 
him cut off, with his mouth, first one of the wings and then the 
other, after which he flew away with it unmolested by the wind. 
— I am, &c., g g 
TWasps are not merely carnivorous, but are even guilty of 
cannibalism. In the summer of 1878, having killed one which 
persisted in settling upon the stage of our microscope, ve were 
surprised shortly after to see another wasp alight upon the body, 
make incisions into the thorax and abdomen, and feast upon the 
juices. — E d. J. S.] 
A CASE OF HEREDITY. 
To the Editor of the Journal of Science . 
Sir, -As you have from time to time dealt with the question of 
hr-redity you may feel an interest in the following fadts, which I 
quote from an American journal of standing Ehas Phil ips 
of Freetown, Mass., who recently appeared as a witness in a 
burglary trial, having turned State’s evidence, is a great-grandson 
of the notorious criminal Maltone Briggs, who was in prison 
with seven of his sons at one time. Bngg s ancestry is traced 
back to a noted pirate in the time of Earl Bellamont, and his 
family has for over a century furnished notorious criminals in 
every generation.” « 
Surely such farts can require no comment.— I am, &c., 
A Jurist. 
