NOTES BY THE WAY. 135 



that proceeded from the dry leaves at my feet. On 

 investigating the matter, I found that it was made by 

 a busy little spider. Several of them were traveling 

 about over the leaves as if in quest of some lost cue 

 or secret. Every moment or two they would pause, 

 and by some invisible means make the low purring 

 sound referred to. Prof. J. C. Allen says the com- 

 mon turtle or land tortoise also has a note, a loud, 

 shrill, piping sound. It may yet be discovered that 

 there is no silent creature in nature. 



THE SAND HOENET. 



I TURNED another (to me) new page in natural 

 history, when, during the past season, I made the 

 acquaintance of the sand wasp or hornet. From 

 boyhood I had known the black hornet, with his 

 large paper nest, and the spiteful yellow-jacket, with 

 his lesser domicile, and had cherished proper con- 

 tempt for the various indolent wasps. But the sand 

 hornet was a new bird, in fact, the harpy eagle among 

 insects, and he made an impression. While walking 

 along the road about midsummer, I noticed working 

 in the tow-path, where the ground was rather inclined 

 to be dry and sandy, a large yellow hornet-like insect. 

 It made a hole the size of one's little finger in the 

 hard, gravelly path beside the road-bed. When dis- 

 urbed, it alighted on the dirt and sand in the middU 



