doubtless have wondered still 

 more at the strange fate which 

 awaited the unlucky harvest- 

 fly, whose last song had been 

 his own requiem. The sand-hornet is also known 

 as the " digger - wasp," the largest of its kind, 

 the most formidable of all our hornets, and car- 

 rying within its black, yellow- spotted body a 

 most searching and terrible poisoned sting. It 

 was a common belief in ancient times that " sev- 

 enteen pricks of a hornet " would " kill a 

 man," to quote from Pliny; and there are many 



