Sometimes she has only to make one journey; at other times and more often, the carter suddenly plumps down her load and quickly runs home. Perhaps it occurs to her that the entrance-door is not wide enough to admit so substantial a morsel; perhaps she remembers some lack of finish that might hamper the storing. And, in point of fact, the worker does touch up her work: she enlarges the doorway, smooths the threshold, strengthens the ceiling. It is all done with a few strokes of the tarsi. Then she returns to the Ephippiger, lying yonder, on her back, a few steps away. The hauling begins again. On the road, the Sphex seems struck with a new idea, which flashes through her quick brain. She has inspected the door, but has not looked inside. Who knows if all is well in there? She hastens to see, dropping the Ephippiger before she goes. The interior is inspected; and apparently a few pats of the trowel are administered with the tarsi, giving a last polish to the walls. Without lingering too long over these delicate after-touches, the Wasp goes back to her booty and harnesses herself to its antennæ. Forward! Will the journey be completed this time? I would not answer for it. I have known a Sphex, more suspicious than the others, perhaps, or more neglectful of the minor architectural details, to repair her omissions, to dispel her doubts, by abandoning her prize on the way five or six times running, in order to hurry to the burrow, which each time was touched up a little or merely inspected within. It is true that others make straight for their destination, without even stopping to rest. I must also add that, when the Wasp goes home to improve the dwelling, she does not fail to give a glance from a distance every now and then at the Ephippiger over there, to make sure that nothing has happened to her. This solicitude recalls that of the Sacred Beetle when he leaves the hall which he is excavating in order to come and feel his beloved pellet and bring it a little nearer to him. The inference to be drawn from the details which I have related is manifest. The fact that every Languedocian Sphex surprised in her mining operations, even though it be at the very beginning of the digging, at the first stroke of the tarsus in the dust, afterwards, when the home is prepared, makes a short excursion, now on foot, anon flying, and invariably finds herself in possession of a victim already stabbed, already paralysed, compels us to conclude, in all certainty, that this Wasp does her work as a huntress first and as a burrower after, so that the place of the capture decides the place of the home.