336 Trans. Acad. Sci. of St. Louis 
she dipped down on the wing as if ready to enter, then 
withdrew in alarm; again she tried to scrape away the 
cinders a little to one side, as if thinking that her burrow 
had been covered by accident, as frequently happens dur- 
ing the mother’s absence. Thus she continued to search 
in all the crevices and possible places. For the first five 
minutes of this hunt, she carried her prey with her; then 
she dropped it until she could find her burrow. After that 
she searched on foot thoroughly over all the area within a 
dozen inches of her hole, only occasionally wandering in 
circular flights over a wider area. She seemed sure of the 
general region—the cinder area—but the ring of gray 
dust around her hole was not to be found; therefore she 
did not recognize it as her own even after poking her head 
in three times, and went back to scratch among the cinders 
in various points for another quarter of an hour. After 
she had spent a full half hour in this faithful search, I 
tried to make reparation by bringing a trowelful of gray 
dust of just the right shade and fineness and putting it 
nicely around the hole. As soon as I withdrew she re- 
turned on the Wing to continue the search, and as she came 
within sight of the place, she dashed straight to it and 
tumbled in headlong, in the old familiar manner! She 
remained in longer than usual this time, then passed out 
and in several times, making short flights of orientation 
about the place each time. Her faith had been severely 
shaken and she had to reassure herself many times. Fur- 
thermore, things were not yet just as they should be; my 
clumsy hand had spilled some cinders in her burrow, and 
she had to make the necessary corrections and get ac 
quainted with the place anew. At last, with one more 
careful flight of orientation, she departed for the fields to 
resume her foraging. 
These wasps keep so diligently to their nesting business 
