HAMPSHIRE DAYS 



returns to my mind ; and it is like a twinge, and I 

 venture on no liberties with Vespa crabro. 



The hornet is certainly not an abundant insect, nor 

 very generally distributed. One may spend years in 

 some parts of the country and never see it. I was 

 lately asked by friends in Kent, who have their lonely 

 house in a wooded and perhaps the wildest spot in 

 the county, if the hornet still existed in England, or 

 really was an English . insect, as they had not seen one 

 in several years. Now in the woods I frequent in the 

 Forest I see them every day, and the abundance of 

 the hornet is indeed for me one of the attractions of 

 the place. His nests are rarely found in old trees, 

 but are common about habitations, in wood-piles, and 

 old, little-used outhouses. I have heard farmers say 

 in this place that they would not hurt a hornet, but 

 regard it as a blessing. So it is, and so is every 

 insect that helps to keep down the everlasting plague 

 of cattle-worrying and crop-destroying flies and grubs 

 and caterpillars. 



But I am speaking of the hornet merely as an In- 

 sect Notable, a spot of brilliant colour in the scene, 

 one of the shining beings that inhabit these green 

 mansions. He is magnificent, and it is perhaps partly 

 due to his vivid and lustrous red and gold colour, his 

 noisy flight, and fierce hostile attitudes, and partly 

 to the knowledge of his angry spirit and venomous 

 sting, which makes him look twice as big as he 

 really is. 



