THE ENTOMOLOGIST. 71 



tumbler, which was removed during the night; and in the 

 morning the Polistes proceeded in search of her companions, 

 bringing back with her two others to assist iu feeding the 

 larvae. Some means of intimating to her associates the 

 object of her apparition, and of urging them to trust to her 

 lead, must doubtless have been made available on this occa- 

 sion ; but that she should have been enabled to define the 

 particular window, among so many, where the nest remained 

 concealed from view, and prevail upon the others to accom- 

 pany her on such a strange and unaccountable expedition to 

 a remote and unnatural locality for the discovery of the lost 

 nest, could only have been accomplished by the exercise of 

 a considerable amount of intelligence and communicative 

 instinct. Tiiat these Polistes belonged to the original brood 

 could scarcely be doubtful, as all others would return to their 

 respective domiciles; but, as supererogatory evidence thereof, 

 I added some strangers to the party from other nests taken 

 elsewhere, and these intruders were at once attacked and 

 driven away. This nest (now exhibibited with some of its 

 occupants in situ) is remarkable from having been constructed, 

 to some extent, of the macerated paper of play-bills of different 

 colours posted in the vicinity, as shown in the tinted layers 

 of the respective cells. On a former occasion Sir John 

 Lubbock pointed out that the sounds produced by the wing- 

 vibrations in Hymenoptera vary according to circumstances ; 

 that " a tired insect produces a somewhat different note from 

 one that is fresh, on account of the vibrations being slower;" 

 that this "change of tone is evidently under the command of 

 the will, and thus offers another point of similarity to a true 

 voice :" that " a bee in the pursuit of honey hums contentedly 

 on a', but if it is excited or angry it produces a very different 

 note;" and that thus the sounds of insects "serve, like any 

 true language, to express the feelings." He also remarks 

 that " as even we, far removed as we are in organization, 

 habits, and sentiments, from a fly or a bee, can yet feel the 

 difference between a contented hum and an angry buzz, it is 

 highly improbable that their power of expressing their feelings 

 should stop here;" and that "one can scarcely doubt that 

 they have thus the power of conveying other sentiments and 

 ideas to one another." In the case of these Polistes (without 

 diving too deeply into their mysterious endowments in this 



