THE BURROWERS 



about as before. Twice she alighted near by, and walked 

 around for a few minutes, and when she did this all 

 her feet came down to the ground, the beetle being 

 allowed to hang loosely. At last she made the best of a 

 bad matter, and went in. The rest of the morning was 

 occupied with hunting, the capture of each beetle taking 

 about forty-five minutes. Every time that she came 

 home she spent fifteen or twenty minutes in the nest. 



This species soon became very common, and for two 

 weeks scarcely a morning passed without our finding at 

 least one newly-made nest. The study of clypeata, how- 

 ever, consumes a great deal of time. For example, we 

 found, one morning, two nests within six inches of each 

 other. It turned out afterward that these were inhabited 

 by two different wasps ; but at the moment we supposed 

 that one of them had been dug and deserted and then a 

 second one made, and wishing to know which one was 

 occupied we resolved to watch and see. After waiting 

 for three hours we saw one wasp returning; but upon 

 noticing us she veered off and began to circle about. 

 She was heavily laden, and her burden, instead of being 

 supported by the second pair of legs, as is sometimes the 

 case, hung down under the thorax and abdomen. After 

 a moment she alighted on a plant near by, and seemed 

 to consider the situation, then circled a little more, and 



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