20 THE AUSTRALIAN NATURALIST. 
two baby birds. Both parent birds aided in feeding the young. 
Both also sat on the nest, but the male seemed to do so only 
while the mother got her meals. We noticed too the ease with 
which the mother settled down on the nest, whereas the male 
looked less comfvitable. We noted that when the male brought 
food the female just hopped off, and waited until the young 
were fed, and then resumed her place on the nest. 
The birds escorted the fledglings out of the nest at the 
end of January, and early in February the nest was deserted. 
EVIDENCES OF INSECT INTELLIGENCE. 
By ArcHDEACON HAVILAND. 
On a footpath in my garden I watched a fierce battle 
between a fully grown wasp—(Hweirus lateritus)—and a large 
black spider; the wasp made several dashing attacks with its 
sting upon the spider with apparently negative results, till, 
clinging to the spider, stung it with the desired paralysing ef- 
fect. But the outstretched legs of the spider were greatly im- 
peding progress to the wasp’s tunnel. This difficulty caused the 
wasp to stand back for a while as if in a thinking attitude, 
then circling around its victim a few times stopped, and walk- 
ing proudly up to the spider commenced deftly to nip off each 
lee at the shoulder, leaving the eight amputated limbs in situ 
on the ground. Having thus solved the problem the wasp 
easily carried its prize to its tunnel as a host for its larva. 
Along another path two large black ants were hesitatingly 
advancing as though exploring; but one ant scrupulously ob- 
served its subordinate position by following up closely at the 
rear of the other; if by any means the leading ant stopped short 
and. the rear ant by impetus advanced past, it would invariably 
return to its position. Further, if the leader took an unex- 
pected turn on account of some obstacle, and the rear ant lost 
its mate by going around the wrong way, the leader would 
stand still till the other, after an excited search, sometimes far 
and wide, had succeeded in finding its mate and taken up the 
rear. 
I was interested to see where these ants were going to but 
turning into the lawn, they were lost from view. 
