348 WASP STUDIES AFIELD 



them carried it away just as the mud-daubers do. She stood 

 on her head and struggled with the stiff mud, as if only with 

 great effort could she remove the clay, while mud-daubing 

 Pelopoeus at the edge of their watering-places carefully 

 select their mud of just the right consistency and then 

 gather it up with comparative ease and grace. 



A year later, August 7, 1917, we saw three instances of 

 the mud-carrying propensities of this ingenious wasp. One 

 came from afar to the dirt bank under the porch where we 

 were loitering, moistened a spot of the earth until it be- 

 came mud, which she gathered in a big ball and carried 

 away. A second one, which had her nest in a board in the 

 porch above the clay bank, went out for a load of water, 

 came back and alighted on the turret made by a burrowing 

 bee, and, after soaking it, appropriated a huge mouthful of 

 her neighbor's pretty dwelling in a manner most nonchalant. 

 A third, thanks to our vandalism, had not so far to go for 

 her partitioning mud. For about two days we had been 

 noticing this one entering an abandoned carpenter-bee hole 

 in the joist, and were eager to see the internal structure of 

 the burrow. With a pocket-knife, we attempted to re- 

 move enough of the wood to expose the cells, but after 

 expending much energy in whittling, we decided it could not 

 be done. Suddenly it dawned upon us that to leave this 

 fresh cut in the weather-worn porch prop would spell the 

 doom of the few privileges which we enjoyed of prowling 

 about people's premises, since our erratic behavior was al- 

 ready regarded with grave suspicion by the populace of 

 this rustic community. Then we remembered the saving 

 grace of protective coloration. We hastily gathered a few 

 handfuls of mud and besmeared the bright cuts, to render 

 all the woodwork a uniform gray color. The wasp con- 

 tinued her work, however, and profited at once by her new 

 convenience. Although she had been going elsewhere for 



