NATURAL HISTORY. 71 



after flying nearly to her nest with a load, she 

 would turn back and fly towards the clay- 

 bank, or take a large sweep off in another 

 direction, and so come to her house. 



" Besides the mason-bee, boys, there is the 

 mason-wasp, which I have heard some per- 

 sons call the dirt-dauber : it is very common, 

 especially in the southern part of the United 

 States. It works very much like the mason- 

 bee, only it is apt to fix its nest under the 

 eaves of old houses, which I think the mason- 

 bee never does. 



" There is also another kind of mason- wasp 

 which will actually break a hard brick. Mr. 

 Rennie says that he saw one at work on a 

 brick of a hard yellow kind. Whether the 

 wasp found a hole in the brick to begin with, 

 he did not know ; but if he did he was hard 

 at work making it larger : he would break 

 off a piece as large as a mustard-seed at a 

 time. Here is a drawing of that kind of 

 wasp; and the insect is no larger than the 

 picture. 



Mason- wasp. Natural size 



