In a few days the galleries are ready, especially as after some repairs those of the preceding year are used again. Other Cerceris, as far as I know, have no fixed home, transmitted from one generation to another. True Bohemians, they establish themselves wherever the chances of their vagabond life may lead them, so long as the soil suits them. But C. tuberculata is faithful to her penates. The projecting shelf of sandstone used by its predecessors is used again; it hollows out the same layer of sand hollowed by its forbears, and, adding its own labour to theirs, obtains deep-seated retreats sometimes only visited with difficulty. The diameter of the galleries would admit a thumb, and the insect can move about easily, even when laden with the prey which we shall see it capture. Their direction is horizontal, from four to eight inches, then makes a sudden turn downward more or less obliquely, now in one direction, now in another. Except the horizontal part, and the angle of the tunnel, the direction seems to depend on the difficulties of the ground, as is proved by the windings and changes in the farthest part of this kind of canal, which is half a yard in length. At the far end are the cells, not numerous, and provisioned with five or six dead beetles. But let us leave the details of how a Cerceris builds, and turn to more wonderful facts. The victim chosen to feed the larvæ is a large weevil (Cleonus ophthalmicus). One sees the captor arrive, carrying the victim between its feet, body to body, head to head. It alights heavily some way from the hole to complete the journey without the aid of wings, and drags the prey laboriously with its jaws, on ground if not vertical, at least very steeply inclined, which often results in sending captor and captive headlong to the bottom, but the indefatigable mother finally darts into her burrow, covered with dust, but with the prey of which she has never let go. If she does not find walking with such a burden easy, it is otherwise with her flight, which is surprisingly powerful, if one considers that the strong little creature is carrying a prey nearly as large as and heavier than herself. I have had the curiosity to weigh the Cerceris and her prey separately, and the first weighed 150 milligrammes, and the second about 250, almost double.