NOTES BY THE WAY 



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 

 breaking and dismembering it, will take it to his 

 nest ; but here was this hornet carrying an insect 

 much larger than himself, and flying with ease and 

 swiftness. It was as if a hawk should carry a hen, 

 or an eagle a turkey. I at once proceeded to dig 

 for one of the hornets, and, after following his hole 

 about three feet under the footpath and to the edge 

 of the roadbed, succeeded in capturing him and 

 recovering the cicada. The hornet weighed fifteen 

 grains, and the cicada nineteen ; but in bulk the 

 cicada exceeded the hornet by more than half. In 

 color, the wings and thorax, or waist, of the hornet 

 were a rich bronze; the abdomen was black, with 

 three irregular yellow bands ; the legs were large 

 and powerful, especially the third or hindmost pair, 

 which were much larger than the others, and armed 

 with many spurs and hooks. In digging its hole 

 the hornet has been seen at work very early in the 

 morning. It backed out with the loosened material, 

 like any other animal under the same circumstances, 

 holding and scraping back the dirt with its legs. 

 The preliminary prospecting upon the footpath, 

 131 



