VOL. XXII.J PHILOSOPHICAL TRANSACTIONS, 565 



thereabouts. The highest part of the cloud appeared to make an angle of 

 45° elevation. The upper part of the cloud was very white, and the other 

 extremely black. The spout itself, which hung from the lower part of the 

 whitish cloud, hovered up and down for about 20 minutes, and during 2 or 3 

 minutes of the time, that part of the sea exactly under the spout, sparkled up 

 water to a considerable height. The sparkling ran along to the Leeward, (the 

 cone of the spout moving that way, and making, it seems, a discharge, though 

 not visible to us in its fall,) and continued running along for six ships' length. 

 Afterwards the body of the spout quickly contracted itself, and then it disap- 

 peared. About two hours afterwards the heavens were entirely overcast, and 

 during that afternoon there fell abundance of hail, and both wind and cold 

 increased. I have seen several water-spouts in the Mediterranean, and those 

 usually during the time of a dead calm, and in hot summer weather ; but to see 

 one in our northern climate in March, and during weather both cold and windy, 

 is, I presume, unusual. 



Observations on Insects in Firginia. By Mr. John Banister ; icith Remarks on 

 them by Mr. James Peiiver, F. R. S. N° 270, p. 807 . 



1. Vespse Ichneumones. Here are divers kinds, all long and slender waisted. 

 They make their nests of dirt, and are therefore called dirt wasps. Some of 

 them make their nests contiguous to one another, each adjoining cavity having 

 in it '2 or more partitions : others build them in clamps, one upon another : 

 they fix them against a wall or ceiling of a house, or any dry place. There is 

 not above 2 wasps belonging to one of these vesparies, for when they have made 

 one cell, and put into it 6 or 8 live spiders, they close it up to work upon 

 another, leaving them to brood upon their young, something like that of Aris- 

 totle in his Hist. Animal. Lib. 1. cap. 20. The young ones of these are inclosed 

 in a thin transparent horny pellicle of an amber colour : those of the other are 

 included in a brown case, with a certain number of regular protuberances at one 

 end, and some are without any case. 



2. We have several other coloured wasps. Two black and white, that build 

 their nests on the small branches of trees. The nest is of an oval form, and 

 about the size of a goose's egg. The other is much larger, and more round; 

 the wasps also are somewhat larger. A third sort I found in shape and colour like 

 our common English wasp, whose little nest was half round, like a clock bell, fixed 

 under the covert of a rotten log. These nests in colour resemble brown paper, 

 only the last tends to a brimstone colour. Here are others brown, with purple 

 wings, and some with streaks of yellow under their bellies. These make their 



