These figures are eloquent of the powers of the huntress, nor did I ever weary of admiring the nimbleness and ease with which she resumed her flight, with the game between her legs, and rose to a height at which I lost sight of her whenever, tracked too close by my indiscretion, she resolved to flee in order to save her precious booty. But she did not always fly away; and I would then succeed, not without difficulty, lest I should hurt her, in making her drop her prey by worrying her and rolling her over. I would then seize the Weevil; and the Cerceris, thus despoiled, would hunt about here and there, enter her lair for a moment and soon come out again to fly off on a fresh chase. In less than ten minutes the skilled huntress had found a new victim, performed the murder and accomplished the rape, which I often allowed myself to turn to my own profit. Eight times in succession I have committed the same robbery at the expense of the same Wasp; eight times, with unshaken consistency, she has recommenced her fruitless expedition. Her patience outwore mine; and I left her in undisturbed possession of her ninth capture. By this means, or by violating cells already provisioned, I procured close upon a hundred Weevils; and, notwithstanding what I was entitled to expect from what Léon Dufour has told us of the habits of the Buprestis-hunting Cerceris, I could not repress my surprise at the sight of the singular collection which I had made. Whereas the Buprestis-slayer, while confining herself to one genus, passes indiscriminately from one species to another, the more exclusive Great Cerceris preys invariably on the same species, Cleonus ophthalmicus. When going through my bag I came upon but one exception, and even that belonged to a kindred species, Cleonus alternans, a species which I never saw again in my frequent visits to the Cerceris. Later researches supplied me with a second exception, in the shape of Bothynoderus albidus; and that is all. Is this predilection for a single species adequately explained by the greater flavour and succulence of the prey? Do the grubs find in this monotonous diet juices which suit them and which they would not find elsewhere? I do not think so; and, if Léon Dufour’s Cerceris hunts every sort of Buprestis without distinction, this is doubtless because all the Buprestes possess the same nutritive properties. But this must be generally the case with the Weevils also: their nourishing qualities must be identical; and then this surprising choice becomes only a question of size and consequently of economy of labour and time. Our Cerceris, the mammoth of her race, tackles the Ophthalmic Cleonus by preference because this Weevil is the largest in our district and perhaps also the commonest. But, if her favourite prey should fail, she must fall back upon other species, even though they be smaller, as is proved by the two exceptions stated.