70 Bees and Wasps. 



washed off. I then transferred her to another 

 bottle, and put her in the sun to dry. When she 

 appeared to have recovered I let her out : she at 

 once flew to her nest, and I never expected to see 

 her again. To my surprise, in 13 minutes she re- 

 turned as if nothing had happened, and continued 

 her visits to the honey all the afternoon. 



4. This experiment interested me so much that 

 I repeated it with another marked wasp, this time, 

 however, keeping the wasp in the water till she was 

 quite motionless and insensible. When taken out 

 of the water she soon recovered ; I fed her ; she 

 went quietly away to her nest as usual, and re- 

 turned after the usual absence. The next morning 

 this wasp was the first to visit the honey. 



I once kept a tame wasp for no less than nine 

 months. 



I took her, with her nest, in the Pyrenees, early 

 in May. The nest consisted of about 20 cells, the 

 majority of which each contained an egg; but as 

 yet no grubs had been hatched out, and, of course, 

 my wasp was still alone in the world. 



5. I had no difficulty in inducing her to feed on 

 my hand ; but at first she was shy and nervous. She 

 kept her sting in constant readiness ; and once or 

 twice in the train, when the railway officials came 

 for tickets, and I was compelled to hurry her back 

 into her bottle, she stung me slightly I think, 

 however, entirely from fright. 



Gradually she became quite used to me, and 



