COMMUNAL LIFE 



to penetrate within, while the empty gauze was un- 

 noticed. As the bones grew cold and dry they attracted 

 less attention, but two days later they were occasion- 

 ally visited. 



Having killed two wasps that had alighted on the 

 ground, by striking them with a folded paper, we took 

 them up and placed one of them at a distance, so that 

 it was entirely hidden in the grass. Five settled above 

 it, and after they had carried it away the place was 

 visited by several others, while the spot upon which we 

 had killed them drew to it nine wasps within fifteen 

 minutes. Thus they seemed very keen of scent where 

 animal matter was concerned ; but the powerful oils of 

 peppermint and wintergreen, although noticed, aroused 

 little attention, perhaps because they indicated nothing 

 of interest to them. 



Our experiments on hearing met with negative results. 

 The wasps seemed insensible to any noise we could 

 make or that we could produce by whistles of various 

 degrees of shrillness. This of course does not show that 

 they cannot hear, and any one who has been unfortunate 

 enough to disturb them in the neighborhood of their nest 

 will remember how their angry buzzing seemed to serve 

 as a battle cry to gather all the members of the clan for 

 the attack. 



9 



