WHITE-FACED HORNETS 



swarm of valiant fighters and mighty 

 laborers, so much will persistent labor, 

 even by near-sighted, dimder-headed hor- 

 nets, accomplish. I say near-sighted, for 

 the two specimens of Vespa maculata 

 who used to hunt flies in my tent were 

 certainly that. I say also dunder-headed, 

 for if not that they would have learned 

 eventually the location of that tack head 

 and ceased to capture it. Barring these 

 failings, no doubt congenital, I know of 

 no pasture people who show greater vir- 

 tues or more of them than the white-faced 

 hornets. 



The weak beginnings of their great 

 community home in the berry bush were 

 made in early May when a single lean and 

 hungry queen mother crept from a crevice 

 in the heart of a great 'hollow chestnut 

 where she had survived the winter. She 

 sunned herself for a time at the opening, 

 35 



