our wasp—whose scientific name, by the way, is _Sphecius speciosus_—launches herself, with “the white man’s burden” she has “taken up,” from her coign of vantage, and reaches home with it in safety. How high she has previously ascended the tree I cannot say, since my informant does not, but it would be interesting to ascertain both this and the average distance which she has to fly to her nest, and to compare the one with the other. Unless the latter is very much greater than the former—and as the journey is constantly downwards it cannot, one would think, be very far—then we must see in the wasp’s choice of a toilsome ascent up a perpendicular tree-trunk, in preference to a horizontal journey along the ground, a triumph of instinct over intelligence, and it is, indeed, quite possible that, having always been accustomed to fly back with her prize, which perhaps was not always so heavy, she should go through as much labour to enable her to do this as, differently directed, would attain the end for which it is employed. ------------------------------------------------------------------------ [Illustration: A WASP BEARING OFF A CICADA.] After the wasp has killed the cicada, they both fall to the ground. Strong as the wasp is it is not easy for her to carry such a heavy insect to her nest. But she has her plan. Slowly but persistently she drags her victim to a tree-trunk and up it, though it may take her an hour to reach the requisite height. Then she sails off for her nest on an inclined plane, with wings extended, and her victim clasped in her arms.