274 ANIMAL LIFE 



for another. On the average she finds one a day, 

 and when the second is found it is sometimes only 

 slightly stung and then softened and rendered pliable 

 by forcible pinching. This done the wasp carries 

 it off and deposits it as before, guided by the same 

 inscrutable, intimate sense of locality back to its 

 hidden nest. 



The store is now complete, and the Ammophila 

 proceeds to fill up the burrow. In this finishing 

 process, as in the initial one, she shows remarkable 

 individuality of behaviour. Some wasps carefully fill 

 the hollow, smoothing the surface, sweeping every 

 particle away, and trying the effect of a leaf, or twig, 

 as a finishing touch. Others merely scratch a little 

 loose earth into a perfunctory burrow. Others again 

 give an extra finish by using a selected stone in their 

 mandibles to beat the surface hard and smooth. 

 The site is then deserted, another is chosen and the 

 work of learning a new locality thoroughly, of making 

 and stocking a new burrow are gone through afresh. 



The incessant ardour which these attractive solitary 

 wasps exhibit in nest building and storing is a won- 

 derful feature. As a rule they work without ceasing 

 from dawn to dark, retire to roost in long grass or under 

 clover about seven or eight o'clock, and after shifting 

 from one posture to another, sleep soundly until 

 about five, though some do not get up till eight. 



Their strenuous encounter with poisonous spiders, 

 or powerful crickets and grasshoppers ; their ways of 

 carrying or concealing the prey until the burrow is 



