xlv 



secutive houses, covering the nest at first with a 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 in feeding the larvae. Some means of inti- 

 mating to her associates the object of her apparition, and of urginc^ 

 them to trust to her lead, must doubtless have been made 

 available on this occasion ; 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 

 accompany 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. 

 That these Polistes belonged to the original brood could scarcely 

 be doubtful, as all others would have returned to their respective 

 domiciles.; but, as corroborative 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 exhibited 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. 



Sir John Lubbock has pointed out, on a former occasion,* 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 feehngs." 



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." 



* President's Address to Eut. Soc, 1808. 



