e, for instance, is one isolated, but frequent,
episode. A peaceable little group of plain bluebottle-flies, with but a
single thought, are all sipping at the same drop in contentment. A brief
respite, for now the tips of a pair of inquisitive antennae appear from
the under edge of the leaf upon which they are sipping, and gingerly
explore the upper surface. They are quickly followed by the covetous
almond-eyed gaze of a brown wasp, that now steals cautiously around to
the upper surface, and appears wholly engrossed in licking the leaf.
Nearer and nearer he sidles up to the group of flies, and now with
deliberate purpose and open jaws makes a dash among them. But they are
too quick for him, and are away in a glittering blue tangle, which
finally concentrates itself upon a neighboring leaf, where the eager
tippling is immediately resumed. The wasp now holds the fort, and seems
in no mood to be trifled with. With head and fore feet upraised and open
jaws he seems "spoiling for a fight," and ready to make war upon the
first comer. But no, he is evidently expecting a friend that, I now
observe, approaches him determinedly down the stem of the leaf. The
new-comer, a brown wasp like himself, is now at close range, and in an
instant more, without any visible courteous preliminaries, the two set
upon each other with a common enthusiasm, and with jaws working and
stings fencing the interlocked combatants fall to the ground for a
finish. I presume the affair was carried to the fourteenth round without
any undue interference.

Another and another of these friendly meetings between them and other
wasps took place in the half-hour in which I watched the sport. There
were lulls in hostilities, during which an atmosphere of perfect peace
and harmony seemed to reign around my bramble-bush. The flies were
motionless in their ecstasy, and the hornet element seemed by common
consent to keep temporarily shady, and even the butterflies seemed to
forget that they had wings. But not for long, for now with a shimmering
glitter our darning-needle invades the scene, and retires to a
convenient perch with a ruby-eyed fly in his teeth, while a swarm of
very startled butterflies tells conspicuously of the demoralization
which he has left in his path. Among the butterfly representatives I at
length observed one individual which at first had escaped me, an
exclusive white cabbage-butterfly which sipped quietly at his leaf in
the shade, and seemed to