74 MY STUDIO NEIGHBORS 



inch, only the extremity of the insect's body ap- 

 pearing, and the two hindermost legs clinging 

 to surrounding earth for purchase. The deep 

 digging is now accompanied by a continual buz- 

 zing noise, resembling that produced by a blue- 

 bottle fly held captive between one's ringers. At 

 intervals of about ten or fifteen seconds the wasp 

 would quickly back out of the burrow, bring- 

 ing a load of sand, which it held between the 

 back of the jaws and its thorax, sustained at the 

 sides by the two upraised fore legs. After a mo- 

 ment's pause with this burden, the insect would 

 make a sudden short darting flight of a foot or 

 more in a quick circuit, hurling the sand a yard 

 or more distant from the burrow. At the end of 

 about fifteen minutes the burrow was sunk to the 

 depth of an inch and a half, the wasp entirely dis- 

 appearing, and indicated only by the continuous 

 buzzing. 



At this time, the luncheon hour having arrived, 

 I was obliged to pause in my investigations, and 

 in order to be able to locate the burrow in the 

 event of its obliteration by the wasp before my 

 return, I scratched a circle in the hard dirt, the 

 hole being at its exact centre. 



Upon my return, an hour later, I was met with 

 a surprise. The ways of the digger-wasps of 



