A noble Wasp. 
167 
witli the majority of the lower animals, both verte- 
brate and insect — is capable of a wrath exceeding 
that of Achilles ; and yet the fact that a red rag 
can manifestly have no associations, personal or 
political, for the bull, shows how unintellectual 
his anger must be. Another instance of mis- 
directed anger in nature, not quite so familiar as 
that of the bull and red rag, is used as an 
illustration by one of the prophets : My heritage 
is unto me as a speckled bird; the birds round, 
about are against it.” I have frequently seen the 
birds of a thicket gather round some singularly 
marked accidental visitor, and finally drive him 
with great anger from the neighbourhood. Possibly 
association comes in a little here, since any bird, 
even a small one, strikingly coloured or marked, 
might be looked on as a bird of prey. 
The fiesh-fiy laying its • eggs on the carrion- 
flower is only a striking instance of the mistakes 
all instincts are liable to, never more markedly 
than in the inherited tendency to fits of frenzied 
excitement : the feeling is frequently excited by 
the wrong object, emd explodes at inopportune 
moments. 
