HORNET AND BANK-VOLE 9 



the slender branchlets, feeding daintily on the seed, and 

 looking like a miniature squirrel on a miniature bush. 



Just there, close to the door, was a wood-pile, and 

 the hornets had made their nest in it. The year 

 before they had made it in a loft in the house, and 

 before that hi the old barn. The splendid insects were 

 coming and going all day, interfering with nobody and 

 nobody interfering with them ; and when I put a plate 

 of honey for them on the logs close to their entrance 

 they took no notice of it; but by -and -by bank -voles 

 and wood -mice came stealing out from among the 

 logs and fed on it until it was all gone. 



I was surprised, and could only suppose that the 

 hornets did not notice or discover the honey, because 

 no such good thing was looked for so close to their 

 door. Away from home the hornet was quick to dis- 

 cover anything sweet to the taste, and very ready to 

 resent the presence of any other creature at the table. 



At the riverside, a few hundred yards from the house, 

 I was sitting in the shade of a large elm tree one day 

 when I was visited by a big hornet, who swept noisily 

 down and settled on the trunk, four or five feet above 

 the ground. A quantity of sap had oozed out into 

 a deep cleft of the rough bark and had congealed 

 there, and the hornet had discovered it. Before he 

 had been long feeding on it I saw a little bank- vole 

 come out from the roots of the tree and run up the 

 trunk, looking very pretty in his bright chestnut fur 

 as he came into the sunlight. Stealing up to the 



