AUGUST. 269 



beyond Spafford's bridge, is the " beat " of this Gryllus. I 

 have occasionally, but rarely, seen a straggler in other places ; 

 but there, on every fine day through the autumn, they are 

 almost sure to be seen and heard, season after season. You 

 may drive them before you a few yards, but they will not go 

 far, neither are they willing to leave the road ; they will pre- 

 sently find means to slip by you, back to their boundary again. 



C. Why have the mowers left yonder little plat of 

 grass uncut, with a stone in the centre ? 



F. That is not a stone, although it looks so much like 

 one, as you would find to your cost if you planted your foot 

 on it. The mowers have cut as near as they durst approach 

 to it, for it is a Wasp's nest ( Vespa Marginata), and full 

 of very irascible and formidable subjects, who are not to be 

 assaulted with impunity. These large round nests are gene- 

 rally attached to a stone, often nearly covering it, and can- 

 not easily be distinguished from it. They are made of a 

 tough whitish paper, manufactured by the wasp, of the mi- 

 nute particles which she abrades from weather-beaten wood, 

 and agglutinates with saliva, spread out into this thin form. 

 This nest consists of several layers, convex above, and pro- 

 jecting at the edges to shoot off the rain from the comb 

 within, which is made of the same substance, and contains 

 young and pupae. You may observe numbers of the wasps 

 coming and going, and crawling busily about the nest, the en- 

 trance to which is beneath the edge : they are yellow, with 

 black bands. 



There is a curious grass now in flower, the Hair Grass, 

 (Trichodium Laxiflorum), remarkable for its delicacy of 

 form ; it is a tall species, and much branched, but scarcely 

 thicker than a hair. See, here are tufts of it ; but it is most 

 abundant in the field by the bridge, affecting a low moist 

 situation. It said to be valuable in an agricultural view. 



