THE GREAT GOLDEN DIGGER 



she stood still and looked about for a few seconds, and 

 then flew away. It surprised us that having been ab- 

 sent from the place for so many hours, she made no 

 study of the locality as she had done before. We thought 

 it a very unpromising sign, and had great fears that she 

 was deserting the place and that we should see her no 

 more. One would need to watch a wasp through the 

 long hours of a broiling hot day to appreciate the joy 

 that we felt when at nine o'clock we saw her coming 

 back. She had no difficulty in finding her nest, nor did 

 she feel any hesitation as to what ought to be done next, 

 but fell to work at once at carrying out more dirt. The 

 weather, although still hot, had become cloudy and so 

 threatening that we expected a down-pour of rain every 

 moment, but this seemed to make no difference to her. 

 Load after load was brought up, until, at the end of an 

 hour, everything seemed completed to her satisfaction. 

 She came to the entrance and flew about, now this way, 

 and now that, repeating the locality study in the most 

 thorough manner, and then went away. At the expira- 

 tion of an hour we saw her approaching with a large 

 light green meadow-grasshopper, which was held in the 

 mouth and supported by the fore legs, which were folded 

 under. On arriving, the prey was placed, head first, near 

 the entrance, while the wasp went in, probably to reas- 

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