HUNTERS OF LARGE ORTHOPTERA 167 



of work, where they could keep a watchful eye on it. Do 

 they rest themselves by a change of work? Or do they want 

 to compare dimensions and get a more exact estimate of the 

 required size of the burrow in course of construction? Or 

 do they judge in terms of their weariness, i.e., after a long 

 time of digging do their tired muscles (not their "heads") 

 tell them that the hole must be large enough ; then when they 

 have tugged at the heavy caterpillar or grasshopper until 

 their backs ache and their legs quiver, do they decide from 

 their muscle-sense (not by their visual estimate) that the 

 varmint must be larger than they had thought and they must 

 dig the hole larger, etc., alternately until they arrive with 

 the prey at tfye hole? 



True to our expectation, this wasp worked at excavating 

 just two minutes longer; then she moved the grasshopper 

 to the very brink of the hole, wheeled it around so it was 

 in position to slide down the sloping entrance head-first, 

 went in to turn around and promptly reached out and 

 dragged it in by the antennae. After only one minute, she 

 reappeared and began at once to fill in the hole by first 

 kicking in a small amount of dirt and then getting into 

 the hole and working this earth down solid with her head, 

 buzzing shrilly as she rammed it down. Sometimes she 

 would break off clods or chunks of earth to fill in; these 

 were not carelessly dropped but crushed to powder and 

 packed tight with the head. She finished her burrow just 

 one hour after she had commenced it. 



On another occasion there was a small sandy area on 

 Howard's Hill, where a load of sand had once been dumped 

 and left to disintegrate. Here and there on top were streaks 

 of grayish-white fire-clay and a few cinders, which had been 

 washed over the sand by heavy rains. On one of these clay- 

 colored areas was a very conspicuous spot ; a little mound of 

 moist red sand was surmounted by a tiny monument of black 



