22 THE SOLITARY WASPS. 



final closing of the nest was intermediate between these two, the 

 work occupying twenty minutes. The wasp first put a plug 

 well down, then dropped in several large pellets and brushed 

 in a quantity of fine earth, and finally smoothed the surface 

 over. 



We had another much less worthy example, one, indeed, that 

 went to the extreme of carelessness. We first saw her in the 

 morning carrying her caterpillar across the field. She frequently 

 dropped it and ran or flew to a little distance, and when she 

 took it again the venter was sometimes up and sometimes down, 

 just as it happened. Her nest was a very poor affair just be- 

 neath the surface, and after the caterpillar was carried in, it 

 was visible from above. She filled the hole with loose particles 

 of earth and then scratched the surface of the ground a little in 

 a perfunctory sort of way, as different as possible from the pains- 

 taking labor 'that we had been accustomed to in her sisters. 

 That afternoon we opened the nest and removed its contents. 

 The next morning we saw this wasp bringing home her second 

 caterpillar. She was much puzzled and disturbed at the de- 

 struction of her nest, and hunted for it for an hour and a half, 

 leaving the caterpillar on the ground near by. We could not 

 help feeling sorry that we had interrupted the contented rou- 

 tine of her life. She finally gave up in despair and we took 

 possession of the deserted caterpillar. 



Just here must be told the story of one little wasp whose in- 

 dividuality stands out in our minds more distinctly than that 

 of any of the others. Wei remember her as the most fastidious 

 and perfect little worker of the whole season, so nice was she 

 in her adaptation of means to ends, so busy and contented in her 

 labor of love, and so pretty in her pride over her completed 

 work. In filling up her neet she put her head down into it and 

 bit away the loose earth from the sides, letting it fall to the bot- 

 tom of the burrow, and then, after a quantity had accumulated, 

 jammed it down with her head. Earth was then brought from 

 the outside and pressed in, and then more was bitten from the 

 sides. When, at last, the filling was level with the ground, she 



