JUNE 139 



cribbed already. I earnestly advise any one who is 

 interested in entomology to obtain possession or loan 

 of Mr. and Mrs. Peckham's illuminating monograph on 

 the solitary wasps, a publication undertaken at the 

 charge of the State by the Wisconsin Geological and 

 Natural History Survey. 



I must, however, draw attention to one other point 

 in the observations of Mr. and Mrs. Peckham on the 

 proceedings of another wasp of the same species. They 

 watched her after she had stored her cell, filling up the 

 burrow with loose earth and ramming it down with her 

 head. When the hole was full she brought some grains 

 of soil and spread them over the top of it, then seizing 

 a small pebble in her mandibles she pounded them 

 down with rapid strokes, 'thus making this spot as 

 hard and firm as the surrounding surface.' This process 

 was repeated three times, and affords, I believe, the 

 only authenticated instance of an insect, or indeed any 

 other of the lower animals, using a tool or instrument 

 to effect its purpose. 



XXV 



We spent an afternoon lately on a moorland meadow 

 picking out the best forms among myriads British 

 of spotted orchis (Orchis maculata), for trans- Orchids 

 planting to the garden. It is strange that the British 

 orchids are not more commonly grown in borders, for 

 although they cannot compete in splendour with their 

 lordly kinsfolk from the neighbourhood of the tropics, 

 several species bear very pretty flowers and foliage, and 



