126 BY MEADOW AND STREAM. 



And so I bid adieu to one of the most delightful 

 books I have met with for many a day. A cheery, 

 breezy book by a "blue sky" philosopher, which I 

 trust many an angler, for his own delight, will possess 

 himself of. I will only add that it is very prettily 

 printed and bound, and illustrated with numerous 

 beautiful reproductions from the author's own lens, 

 for in his journey ings he always carried with him his 

 photographic apparatus. 



Do AMERICAN HORNETS BITE? 



In reply to this question (see ante, p. 120) the author 

 of " Little Rivers," Mr. Henry Van Dyke, of New 

 York, has most kindly sent me the following very 

 interesting remarks : 



"Now, concerning the bite of the hornet, you must 

 know that it was an error not typographical, but 

 autographical. It has disappeared in the third 

 edition, which is now printing. But this is the way 

 I came to make it. In this country we have a hornet 

 of uncommon size, and all dressed in black and white 

 like a clergyman. His attack is so fierce and 

 astounding that we boys used to say, and think, that 

 he executed it with both ends at once biting like a 

 serpent and stinging like an adder. In the careless- 

 ness of writing, I suppose this tradition of boyhood 

 crept into my MS. 



"This winged adversary is so much more terrible 

 than any other creature that flies, that the boys 

 invented a special name for him, and called him, by 

 way of distinction, the Hornick. In England you 



