The Return to the Nest 



The flat stone is not enough to mislead 

 our wide-awake friend; we must find some- 

 thing better. To cut things short, I do not 

 allow the Bembex to continue her excava- 

 tions, which, I can see, will soon prove suc- 

 cessful; I drive her off with my handkerchief. 

 The fairly long absence of the frightened 

 insect will give me time to prepare my snares 

 at leisure. What materials shall I employ 

 now? In these improvised experiments, we 

 must know how to turn everything to use. 

 Not far off, on the high-road, are the fresh 

 droppings of some beast of burden. The 

 very thing! The droppings are collected, 

 broken up, crumbled and then spread in a 

 " layer at least an inch thick on the threshold 

 of the burrow and all around, covering about 

 a quarter of a square yard. This certainly 

 is a house-front the like of which no Bembex 

 ever knew. The colouring, the nature of 

 the materials, the stercoral effluvia all com- 

 bine to mystify the Wasp. Will she take all 

 this — that expanse of manure, that dung — 

 for the front of her door? Why, yes: here 

 she comes! She inspects the unwonted con- 

 dition of the place from above and settles in 

 the middle of the layer, just opposite the en- 

 trance. She digs, makes a hole through the 

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