HORNETS: BRITISH AND FOREIGN. 375 
tree. This was the object of the hornet’s manceuvres, fer if 
at once dashed among the fohage, where the wide wings of 
the butterfly were at a disadvantage, captured the unfortu- 
nate Atalanta, bit off its head and wings, and flew away with 
the body.” 
Report of Observations of Injurious Insects and Common 
Farm Pests in the Year 1893. By Miss ELEANOR 
ORMEROD. 
Page 114. 
“The Vespa crabro, or hornet, is easily distinguishable from 
the other species of wasps by its greater size and the large 
proportion of its rusty or reddish colouring. In the part of 
Gloucestershire mentioned above,. where there was much 
woodland, it was not at all uncommon, but its range of 
habitat is given as not extending, as far as known, so far 
north as Yorkshire. 
“In general habits it resembles the smaller Vespide, 
commonly known as wasps, but by preference appears 
neither to build underground, nor where exposed to weather 
in trees or hedges, but to select the inside of hollow trees, 
or logs, or roofs of lofts or sheds; the individual colonies are 
less in number than those of the wasps, and the paper of 
which the nests are composed is much coarser. The nests 
sometimes run to a great size, the largest which I have seen, 
and assisted in securing when deserted in the winter, was 
taken from a cottage roof in Gloucestershire, and measured 
fifteen inches across and nineteen inches in height, although 
some of the lower part had been removed.” . 
Page 124. 
The following particulars were communicated to Miss 
Ormerod by Mr. Edward A. Atmore, F.E.S., of King’s Lynn, 
Norfolk :— 
“Hornets (V. erabro) have also been unusually plentiful 
here, the nests, as usual, occurring generally in hollow trees. 
These powerful insects seem. to be as fond of destroying 
warps as wasps themselves are of destroying flies. I have 
several times witnessed this habit of theirs.” 
Also on page 124. 
* Worcestershire.—On applying to Mr. J. Hiam, The 
Wren’s Nest, Astwood Bank, near Redditch, with regard 
