VESPA'S STING Z7 



man, but to the hand of death that slays 

 all wasps in the fall of the year, it was 

 found they had consumed nearly three 

 thousand pounds of Her Majesty's sugar, 

 leaving piles of cotton bags chewed full 

 of holes and stuflfed with the bodies of 

 defunct hornets. 



But the hornets of Shahjehanpoor do a 

 service to the British Government which 

 no doubt more than compensates it for 

 the raid they made on those sugar stores, 

 for they act the part of scavengers and 

 keep the vicinity of the butchers' booths 

 clean. 



One has to admit that oriental hornets 

 do seem a trifle precipitate, and perhaps 

 even a little ugly in the use of their stings. 

 Dr. King, of Penang, reports of one : " He 

 is very vicious, and we are all in great fear 

 of him. No later than last Sunday one 

 flew into the Scotch kirk, where one of 

 the merchants was reading the service, 

 plumped down and stung him instantly 



