BIRDS AND INSECTS 119 



But the most interesting part of the work was 

 yet to come; in front of the hole was a little heap 

 of dirt which had been deposited by the wasp while 

 making the excavation; this dirt must now all be 

 replaced and I was greatly entertained by watch- 

 ing and learning how the wasp did this, I saw the 

 insect turn its back to the hole and working its 

 front legs, make the dirt fly 



EXACTLY LIKE A DOG 



when it is digging the dirt for a wood-chuck; 

 every once in awhile it would stop digging the 

 dirt and peer down the opening, occasionally crawl- 

 ing in as I rightly supposed for the purpose of 

 packing down the dirt inside; I say rightly sup- 

 posed because as the cavity filled I could see 

 exactly how she did it. 



I had my sketching pad on my knee and made 

 drawings of the insect at all stages of the work 

 so that I can vouch for the accuracy of these state- 

 ments. Whenever the wasp had what it thought 

 to be a sufficient amount of dirt in its hole it would 

 use its head for a mallet and by butting would 

 hammer the dirt until it was packed tightly in 

 place. It kept up this process until the hole was 

 completely filled up so that no trace of it was ap- 

 parent. 



One day while we were eating dinner in our log 

 house in the woods of Pike County, Pa., we were 

 entertained by a number of white-faced hornets, 

 which were busy catching the flies that hovered 



