ONE-BANDED DAUBER 419 



her site were a dozen other slats each affording a building- 

 plot similar in every way to the one she had selected. Above 

 her were as many more. This made her work difficult, as it 

 finally proved, too difficult for her limited sense of direction. 

 She laid the foundation of her nest in a maze of sites, each 

 exactly like those above and below and in the end her design 

 perished. Her pellets of mud were deposited upon four dif- 

 ferent slats, one below the other until four separate cells, 

 three inches apart commenced to take form. Arriving laden 

 with her ball of mud she would fly to the general location of 

 her original foundation, but to distinguish which slat among 

 so many similar ones supported her original masonry was 

 quite beyond her. Thus she worked, vainly endeavoring to 

 finish her nursery in the usual space of time, laboring the 

 while unconsciously on four widely separated cells! Even- 

 tually she abandoned the job in despair and indeed it must 

 have been discouraging. To return, hour after hour, labori- 

 ously carrying that heavy mortar to a house that refused to 

 grow, might easily discourage a stouter heart than the 

 dauber's. 



That she concentrated her efforts entirely upon four 

 slats was an interesting fact. It gives us some idea to what 

 degree of perfection her senses of smell and direction are 

 developed. The first slat bearing evidences of her workman- 

 ship was situated twelve inches above the fourth and lowest 

 one. ]S T ow as the wasp always returned, with her pellet, to 

 one of these four, it is logical to suppose that her sense of 

 direction was developed accurately enough to bring her 

 within twelve inches of the actual location of her nest. Ob- 

 servation of the insect whose nest I found upon the brick 

 pillar strengthened the evidence. This wasp never returned 

 directly to her nest at the outset, but at the same time never 

 alighted with her burden more than a full twelve inches from 

 it. From such a position she would walk about in a zigzag 

 course, until at length the brick bearing the nest was reached. 

 Once this "home brick" was located, the insect would walk 



