The Travellers 



pany presented itself to my eyes. Let us try 

 to trace the probable causes of this agglomer- 

 ation. 



The Hairy Ammophila is one of the very 

 rare exceptions among the Digger-wasps in 

 the matter of nest-building: she gets hers 

 ready in the early days of spring. Towards 

 the end of March, if the season be mild, or at 

 latest in the first fortnight of April, when the 

 Crickets assume the adult form and labor- 

 iously cast the skin of infancy on the 

 threshold of their homes, when the poet's- 

 narcissus puts forth its first flowers and the 

 Bunting utters his long-drawn call from the 

 top of the poplars in the fields, Ammophila 

 hirsuta is at work digging a home for her 

 grubs and victualling it, whereas the other 

 Ammophilas and the various Hunting Wasps 

 in general postpone this labour until autumn, 

 during September and October. This early 

 nidification, preceding by six months the date 

 adopted by the vast majority, at once suggests 

 a few reflections. 



We wonder if the Ammophilae whom we 

 find occupied with their burrows in the first 

 days of April are really insects of that year, 

 that is to say, if these spring workers com- 

 pleted their metamorphosis and left their 

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