THE BUG-HUNTERS. 93 



exactly the insouciant air of a fly. It alighted near a weed, 

 rose, circled about a little, came back to the same place, rose 

 again, and no, it was no fly, dropped down into a tiny hole, 

 hidden from above by a leaf. It was a wasp, and a very pretty 

 one, with the abdomen soft, bright red, dark cephalothorax and 

 gauzy wings. In a few minutes the little creature came creep- 

 ing out and began to circle around the place but she evidently 

 found it difficult to tear herself away from her home. Again 

 and again she alighted near by, and finally she came close to the 

 opening and, flattening her body so that she almost lay on the 

 ground, gazed into it in a contented and contemplative manner. 

 After a time she flew away. She was gone for ten minutes and 

 when she came back we saw that she was carrying something in 

 her mandibles. She did not go directly to the nest but alighted 

 on a weed. After a moment she rose and circled about and 

 then alighted again, this time on the ground. After she had 

 repeated these actions several times she entered the nest, de- 

 posited her burden and almost immediately came out again. As 

 before, some minutes were spent in circling about the spot be- 

 fore she flew away. 



For two hours we sat by the nest watching her as she pur- 

 sued the peculiarly even tenor of her way. She hesitated, de- 

 layed, and circled about whenever she left home and whenever 

 she returned. Once on coming back to the nest, which was en- 

 tered by a slightly oblique gallery, she walked in over the upper 

 edge so that her back was down. On her return from her 

 fourth journey we caught her in a bottle and found that she 

 was carrying a small homopterous insect, which she held by the 

 head, venter up. "We shook the bottle but she would not drop 

 it, and when released she resumed the business of the day with 

 perfect self-possession. Twice on going in, she pushed up some 

 earth, thus closing the hole behind her. 



In the two hours that we watched her she made ten journeys. 

 The stay within the nest was never more than two minutes but 

 often as much more time was spent in going in and in getting 

 away. We kept a record of the hours at which she returned 



