118 PEPACTON 



on the dirt and sand in the middle of the road. I 

 had noticed in my walks some small bullet-like 

 holes in the field that had piqued my curiosity, and 

 I determined to keep an eye on these insects of the 

 roadside. I explored their holes, and found them 

 quite shallow, and no mystery at the bottom of 

 them. One morning in the latter part of July, 

 walking that way, I was quickly attracted by the 

 sight of a row of little mounds of fine, freshly dug 

 earth resting upon the grass beside the road, a foot 

 or more beneath the path. "What is this?" I 

 said. "Mice, or squirrels, or snakes," said my 

 neighbor. But I connected it at once with the 

 strange insect I had seen. Neither mice nor squir- 

 rels work like that, and snakes do not dig. Above 

 each mound of earth was a hole the size of one's 

 largest finger, leading into the bank. While specu- 

 lating about the phenomenon, I saw one of the large 

 yellow hornets I had observed, quickly enter one of 

 the holes. That settled the query. While spade 

 and hoe were being brought to dig him out, another 

 hornet appeared, heavy-laden with some prey, and 

 flew humming up and down and around the place 

 where I was standing. I withdrew a little, when 

 he quickly alighted upon one of the mounds of 

 earth, and I saw him carrying into his den no less 

 an insect than the cicada or harvest-fly. Then 

 another came, and after coursing up and down a 

 few times, disturbed by my presence, alighted upon 

 a tree, with his quarry, to rest. The black hornet 

 will capture a fly, or a small butterfly, and, after 



