NERVE SPECIALISTS 295 
me of a dog trying to rout a rabbit from its bur¬ 
row. I suppose it is a Tiphia? ” 
It was indeed, and matters had reached such a 
desperate pass that the hunter never even real¬ 
ized that she had an audience. Fast and furious 
flew the dirt as she sought to enlarge the opening 
she had made sufficiently to reach in and nab her 
victim from above. No sooner had she essayed 
this, however, than the worm promptly uncurled 
and turned over. Plainly its object was to keep 
its back hidden; for the wasp stayed her lance 
and began to dig again from the other side. Two 
or three times the worm flopped and turned, and 
the foiled wasp was forced to renew her efforts. 
But in the end she tired out her fat, short-winded 
antagonist, and at a moment when it was slow 
in turning, her sharp hypodermic needle was 
jammed viciously into the nerve centers behind 
the head. Instantly the worm collapsed, lying 
limp and senseless, entirely at the mercy of its 
relentless enemy. 
But the Tiphia was not as vindictive as Mrs. 
Hairy. “ She has no cause to be,” Uncle John 
pointed out. “ Here is an underground nursery 
all ready prepared, and food quite sufficient for 
her own little grub.” 
She simply smeared one of the white worm’s 
fat grooves with a coat of stiff mucilage, and 
deposited an egg upon it. Then she sealed up the 
