384 THE REV. F. A. WALKER, D.D., F.L.S:, ON 
informed persons, who certainly ought to know a wasp from 
a hornet, there being quite as much difference in size as 
between a hive bee and a humbie bee (Bombus terrestris). 
Some years ago, my friend the late Mr. 8. Stone wrote to: 
me to find out some hornets’ nests, and I made several 
inquiries for him in the neighbourhood. One intelligent 
keeper said that he did not then know of a hornets’ nest, but 
he had seen dozens of them in previous years, and he per- 
fectly remembered one very strong colony that attacked 
every one who passed near the nest, which, he said, was 
suspended from the under side of a fir bough. ‘This statement 
at once floored all my previous faith in his tales of hornets, 
their nests, and shape; and he likewise told me that on 
another occasion one crawled into his boot and stung his 
foot. That the hornet could raise a colony from a nest 
suspended in the open air is a simple impossibility ; the first 
rough wind would blow its frail but beautiful nest, con- 
structed of rotten wood, to atoms. Even when taken for 
the cabinet, it requires most careful handling, or it will 
crumble to pieces in the hand with only a very slight 
pressure.— HENRY REEKS, Thruxton, September 7th, 1874.” 
“*Do hornets ever buildin the ground?’ This question 
is asked by Mr. Henry Reeks in the last number of the 
Entomologist (Eintom. vu, 232). I can, from personal 
observation, assure him that they do so. In the month of 
August, 1871, I found a hornets’ nest in a bank at a wood- 
side near Sidmouth; it was at the latter part of the month, 
when the colony was numerous. | stood within two yards 
of the entrance to the nest for some time, the hornets passing 
in and out, but exhibiting no dislike to my close observation. 
I was anxious to ascertain whether hornets posted a sentinel 
within the mouth of the burrow ; I failed, however, to detect 
one. In the fifth volume of the Kntomological Magazine, 
p- 479, will be fonnd a record of the hornet building in a 
perpendicular bank at the side of a river.—F REDERICK SMITs#, 
27, Richmond Crescent, Islington.” 
Vespa Orientals. 
It is much to be wished that those who contributed the 
appendix “Insects of the Bible” to the Teachers’ Bible, in 
making the statement that four species of hornets (resembling 
ours, but larger) have been found in Palestine, would also 
have given the place and date of their occurrences, and the 
