SOME GRA VE DIGGERS. 113 



leisurely and elegant manner, using her fore feet, like a cat, to 

 wash her face. 



Whenever she leaves her nest she makes three or four rapid 

 circles around the spot. This is doubtless to freshen her mem- 

 ory of the locality. We once saw clypeata make a thorough 

 study of the neighborhood. This was in the case of the wasp 

 mentioned before, that was so long in carrying her beetle in be- 

 cause of our being on the ground. When she finally did go in 

 she stayed only an instant just long enough to deposit her 

 load and then came out and spent a long time in a thorough 

 investigation of all the surrounding objects, flying in and out 

 among the plants, now high, now low, and circling again and 

 again around the spot. It looked as though she had been puz- 

 zled and disturbed by the presence of imaccustomed things. As 

 soon as the survey was over she went inside and closed the door, 

 as though its object had been not so much to strengthen her 

 memory as to correct former impressions. 



The work of bringing in beetles goes on, very irregularly, and 

 as a rule not more than two or three are store I in the course of 

 a day. It is not unusual for clypeata to spend three or four 

 hours away from home and then come back without anything, 

 and often, even in the middle of the day, she passes an hour or 

 two in the seclusion of her nest. We had several nests under 

 observation for a week at a time without ever once seeing the 

 owners, although they were evidently occupied since they were 

 sometimes open and sometimes closed. The outer entrance is 

 always left open when the wasp goes away, although possibly 

 access to the pockets may be barred below; but when she enters 

 she closes the door unless she means to come out again at once. 

 The closing is sometimes effected by pushing the earth up back- 

 wards, with the end of the abdomen, but the hole is rather too 

 large for this method and more frequently the wasp comes np 

 head first, carrying a load of earth in her front legs. This is 

 placed just within and to one side of the entrance, and then 

 more armfuls are brought up, until, after two or three trips, the 

 opening is entirely filled. 

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