HORNETS : BRITISH AND FOREIGN. 387 
of the time-honoured temple of Isis at Denderah (anciently 
Tentyra) on December 24th, 1883, I found myself in a 
somewhat uncomfortable position, as the summit of the wall 
was fenced by no parapet and there was a drop of probably 
30 feet on the outer and possibly 20 feet on the inner side 
of the wall, and the hornets that were clustered on the 
patches of clay on the outer wall of the little chapel of Isis 
on the roof, being disturbed in their depredations by our 
advance, began to fly wildly about our heads. The said 
clay cells were the work of the little tawny-coloured bee 
scientifically known as Calicodoma sicula, and they have 
plastered not only the hieroglyphics, but the whole side of 
the exterior of the temple. I have three specimens of 
V. orientalis from the cliffs of Lycopolis that I visited on 
December 22nd, and doubtless the presence of C. sicula 
accounted for their being here also, as on p. 180 of my Mine 
Hundred Miles up the Nile ‘the following passage occurs: —‘ Nor 
must the wonderful labours of hymenopterous insects be left 
unnoticed that have selected the western side of the cliff as 
doubtless the most sheltered for their abode, and completely 
covered it, in one particular spot, with masses of clay cells.” 
Great interest attaches to the fact of the modern traveller 
finding V. orientalis and C. sicula side by side, as there can 
be little doubt but what these are the identical hornet and 
bee mentioned in Holy Writ. V. orientalis was also noticed 
at Minieh, Upper Egypt, in the outskirts of the town, and 
around its sugar factory on December 20th (ef. Nine Hundred 
Miles up the Nile, pp. 120 and 122) :—“ Hornets were very 
abundant. Five days only from Christmas, and the 
thermometer is 79° in the sun, and several hornets are 
settled on the ground outside the mill, to regale themselves 
on the mingled molasses and water that drips from the 
waste pipe.” And p. 103, apropos of Helwan, “ Hornets are 
abundant” (Entomologist, vol. xxxi, pp. 170, 171). 
Apropos of Vespa orientalis, the Rev. J. G. Wood (p. 615 of 
his Bible Animals) says :—‘*'lhey make their nests in various 
ways, some species placing them underground, and others 
disposing them as shown in the illustration (said illustration 
represents the nest as suspended from two forked branches of 
a tree) and merely sheltering them from the elements by a 
paper cover. Such nests as these would easily be disturbed 
by the animals which accompanied the Israelites on theit 
journeys. In such a case, the irritated insects rush out at 
the intruders, and so great is the terror of their stings that 
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