Vol. XXlx] ENTOMOLOGICAL NEWS. 115 



My sister picked it up, thinking it was an empty birds' nest, but drop- 

 ped it again quickly. They (the bees) were so ill-natured that it 

 was not safe to go near them; so at night we scalded them. Is it 

 common for this species of bee to utilize such places for their nests? 

 I do not know whether the bees drove the sparrows out, or the spar- 

 rows deserted the nest voluntarily." 



The Washington entomologists whom I have consulted and Mr. E. 

 \Y. Nelson, Chief of the Biological Survey, have never heard of 

 bumblebees living in birds' nests. The case seems interesting and 

 exceptional. I send this account to Entomological Xews in the hope 

 that it may bring out other accounts of strange nesting places of this 

 bee. 



In a later letter Mr. Ranslovv wrote that a neighbor had told him 

 that a colony of bumblebees entered an upstairs room in her house 

 through an open window and built a nest in a box of old clothing 

 that had been put away to cut up for carpet rags. L. O. HOWARD, 

 Washington, D. C. 



Feeding Habits of a Harvest Spider (Phalangida). 



In the morning of the I4th of October I was seated on my kitchen 

 step at Iowa City, cracking hickory nuts. After a few of them had 

 been broken open a large Harvest Spider (apparently our common 

 Liobunnm] came out from the nearby grass and made directly for the 

 spot upon which the nuts had been cracked. Remembering what I had 

 read of the carnivorous habits of these Arachnids, I offered a small 

 Balaninus larva, about one-third grown, to see if it would be attacked, 

 but no special response was evoked other than a rearing up of the 

 Harvest Snider after the method common to this group when slightly 

 excited. The larva was not picked up nor bitten. After a few moments 

 the Harvest Spider picked up a piece of kernel, about a cubic millimeter 

 in size, from a sound nut, holding it with the tips of the pedipalpi and 

 nipping or scraping with the chelicerae, removing only minute particles 

 which were evidently swallowed. This process continued for about 25 

 minutes and was watched through a low-powered lens. The observa- 

 tion was terminated by the interference of a large cricket running 

 acrosr, the walk and bumping into the Harvest Spider which then re- 

 tired into the grass, carrying the rest of the nut fragment with it. This 

 note is offered to indicate that the habit of eating vegetable matter at 

 times is not always for the purpose of obtaining water (as suggested by 

 Warburton in the Camhrid<j<- Xutiiral History. IV. 441), since the nuts 

 were fairly well seasoned and most of the contained moisture must 

 have been in the nature of oil. Possibly the odor was strongly attrac- 

 tive since the Harvest S;>i kr ran directly from cover to the cruslv-:! 

 kernels and did not appear to be easily disturbed while feeding. II. F. 

 WICKIIAM, State University of Iowa. Iowa City, Iowa. 



