How Animals Work. 



sand-bank that is exposed to the full rays of the sun 

 is the Odynerus. It is a skilful little miner and mason, 

 for it drives a little shaft into the sand-bank, and out 

 of the material obtained in the process of excavation 

 forms a fragile tube which projects beyond the en- 

 trance to the shaft. Scraping away at the face of the 



sand-bank, the little Ody- 

 nerus soon collects suffi- 

 cient grains of sand to work 

 up into a small pellet, which 

 is then placed on the edge 

 of the excavation she has just 

 started to make. Working 

 vigorously in the hot June 

 sunshine, she digs away with 

 untiring zeal, pellet after 

 pellet being formed and 

 placed in position, so that 

 as the shaft she is digging 

 deepens the little cylinder 

 projects further outward, at 

 first perpendicularly to the 

 surface on which its founda- 

 tions rest, but later, as it 

 increases in length, curving 

 over at what sometimes looks like a dangerous angle. 

 The object of this curious leaning tower appears to be 

 the masking of the entrance to the cell, and to dis- 

 courage the investigations of certain unwelcome insect 

 visitors who might desire to appropriate the chamber or 

 deposit their eggs therein. The shaft having been sunk 

 to a sufficient depth and the outside cylinder completed. 



Nest of Solitary Wasp 

 (Odynerus). 



