HORNETS : BRITISH AND FOREIGN. 385 
scientific names of all these four kinds. No opportunity is 
afforded to us of verifying the assertion, however correct, and 
why, if four species larger than our own do occur there, are 
their names not given? Whereas the name of our own British 
species, Vespa crabro, is given in the third column of the page 
devoted to the Latin scientific names of Bible insects, the first 
and second columns being devoted to the English and to the 
Hebrew and Greek appellations respectively. _ Again, what 
proof is given that our British hornet occurs in Palestine? 
I have never captured or even seen it there. But let us suppose 
that it does for the moment and admit that others have been 
more observant and fortunate. Why is the foreign species, 
Vespa orientalis, never so much as mentioned by those entrusted 
with the responsible duty of compiling the notes on Scripture 
for Sunday-school teachers in general. ‘That it is widely 
distributed may be proved from my personal experience, as 
I caught it at the River Meles, Smyrna, and again at Phila- 
delphia, and also at Lycopolis, Helwan, and Heliopolis, in 
Egypt, and saw it, moreover, at Cairo, Denderah, Minieh, 
and in the two former of these last-named three places in 
abundance, 
The Rey. J. G. Wood hits the mark much more nearly 
when in page 616 of his work Bible Animals he states :—“ The 
species of hornet represented in the illustration is Vespa orien- 
talis, the insect and nest being drawn from specimens in the 
British Museum.” His remark on page 615 is also perfectly 
accurate:—* The hornets of Palestine and the neighbouring 
countries are far more common than our own hornets in 
England, and they evidently infested some parts to such an 
extent that they gave their name to those spots. Thus the 
word Zoreah, which is mentioned in Joshua xv, 33, signifies 
‘The Place of Hornets.’” This word is evidently derived from 
the sound of their buzz, asis also Tzireh, the word used in these 
passages for hornets—Exodus xxiii, 28, ‘And I will send 
hornets before thee, which shall drive out the Hivite, the 
Canaanite, and the Hittite, from before thee.” A similar use 
of the word is made in Deut. vii, 20, “Moreover the Lord thy 
God will send the hornet among them, until they that are 
left, and hide themselves from thee, be destroyed.” And 
again in Joshua xxiv, 12, “And I sent the hornet before you, 
whick drave them out from before you, even the two kings 
of the Amorites; but not with thy sword, nor with thy bow.” 
The Rev. J. G. Wood adds (also on page 615), “It 1s needless 
to say that the passages in question might be hteral statements 
2 ¢ 
