156 OUR BACKDOOR NEIGHBORS 



with glue and pins to the board where it had 

 formerly been. He hoped that the mother 

 was afield in search of food and that she would 

 soon return. After waiting all day in vain, 

 he was convinced that she had gone never to 

 return, and was at a loss to know what to do 

 with the nestful of eggs, larvae, and pupae. 

 He had marked a number of them in order to 

 determine the period of their various stages of 

 growth, and felt that he could hardly be recon- 

 ciled to an accident of this kind. 



Near at hand was another similar nest, but 

 the mother was not a very lively sort and had 

 but a few cells. He decided to give her both 

 families to see whether she would adopt the 

 unfortunates. Accordingly, the nest was fast- 

 ened close beside her own nest under a big box 

 lid. 



The foster mother did not take kindly to 

 such an arrangement, and moved rapidly over 

 the strange comb, flitting her wings violently 

 and showing evidences of displeasure. Since 

 the Naturalist had seldom visited this wasp, he 

 felt that perhaps the fact of his presence 

 caused her agitation as much as the presence of 

 strange babies. Accordingly, he kept away 

 until the following morning in order to give 



