peacefully drawing her honeyed
beakers. The males even, possessing no lancet, know no other manner of
refreshment. The mothers, without neglecting the table d'hote of the
flowers, support themselves by brigandage as well. We are told of the
Skua, that pirate of the seas, that he swoops down upon the fishing
birds, at the moment when they rise from the water with a capture. With
a blow of the beak delivered in the pit of the stomach he makes them
give up their prey, which is caught by the robber in mid-air. The
despoiled bird at least gets off with nothing worse than a contusion
at the base of the throat. The Philanthus, a less scrupulous pirate,
pounces on the Bee, stabs her to death and makes her disgorge in order
to feed upon her honey.

I say feed and I do not withdraw the word. To support my statement I
have better reasons than those set forth above. In the cages in which
various Hunting Wasps, whose stratagems of war I am engaged in studying,
are waiting till I have procured the desired prey--not always an easy
thing--I have planted a few flower-spikes, a thistle-head or two, on
which are placed drops of honey renewed at need. Here my captives come
to take their meals. With the Philanthus, the provision of honeyed
flowers, though favourably received, is not indispensable. I have only
to let a few live Bees into her cage from time to time. Half a dozen
a day is about the proper allowance. With no other food than the syrup
extracted from the slain, I keep my insects going for a fortnight or
three weeks.

It is as plain as a pikestaff: outside my cages, when the opportunity
offers, the Philanthus must also kill the Bee on her own account. The
Odynerus asks nothing from the Chrysomela but a mere condiment, the
aromatic juice of the rump; the other extracts from her victim an ample
supplement to her victuals, the crop full of honey. What a hecatomb
of Bees must not a colony of these freebooters make for their personal
consumption, not to mention the stored provisions! I recommend the
Philanthus to the signal vengeance of our Bee-masters.

Let us go no deeper into the first causes of the crime. Let us accept
things as we know them for the moment, with their apparent or real
atrocity. To feed herself, the Philanthus levies tribute on the Bee's
crop. Having made sure of this, let us consider the bandit's method
more closely. She does not paralyse her capture according to the rites
customary among the Hunting Wasps; she