, 
. 
' 
doubtless have wondered still 
more at the strange fate which 
awaited the unlucky harvest- 
fly, whose last song had been 
his own requiem. The sand-hornet is also known 
as the " digger - wasp," the largest of its kind, 
the most formidable of all our hornets, and car- 
rying within its black, yellow -spotted body a 
most searching and terrible poisoned sting. It 
was a common belief in ancient times that " sev- 
enteen pricks of a hornet " would " kill a 
man," to quote from Pliny; and there are many 
