SOME GEA VE DIGGERS. 121 



At this last return she brought in no load and at once closed 

 the nest for the night, after having stored thirteen bees in three 

 hours and nine minutes. It will be noticed that in some cases 

 thei capture of the bee occupied only one, two, or three minutes, 

 while at other times she was gone much longer. At each return 

 she stayed only an instant — just long enough to deposit the bee — 

 inside the nest, the minute that elapsed before she flew away be- 

 ing occupied in carefully closing the hole. The wasps that were 

 going in and out of nest Xo. 1 sometimes closed it when they 

 went away, but this was done in an untidy fashion, quite differ- 

 ent from the nicety and precision of jSTo. 2. 



xVt half after five o'clock the) wasp that had been digging for 

 some little time at nest ISTo. 1, flew to nest iSTo. 2, opened it, and 

 attempted to enter, but was quickly driven out by the owner. 

 She then dug a little in several other places, finally returning 

 to sleep in the family home. On the next day we found that 

 No. 2 was tolerating in her nest one of the females that had not 

 yet begun to hunt, but whether it was the one she had rejected 

 the night before or the fourth member of the sisterhood we could 

 not tell. On the eighteenth, thi-ee days later, the wasp had left 

 this temporary home and made a nest for herself four feet away 

 •on the hillside. The males were still living in the first nest 

 with two females. 



When the weather was cold and cloudy pu net at us remained 

 closely housed within the nest, or, at most, came out to do an 

 hour's digging and then again disappeared. The warmer the 

 weather and the more brilliant the sunshine the more rapidly 

 they worked. When leaving the nest they would often creep 

 out and walk around it three or four times before rising on their 

 wings, and even then would sometimes alight once or twice be- 

 fore flying away. The males, especially, liked to stand about 

 for a time, watching their more industrious sisters at their work. 

 The females usually began the day with digging, and frequently 

 closed it, toward night, in the same way. 



In order to see the method of stinging we at one time provided 

 ourselves with a number of bees, and putting one of them into 



