SCIENCE-GOSSIP. 



83 



to be the case and you 

 decide on securing it for a 

 specimen, carefully loosen 

 with your knife the peg to 

 which it adheres and, 

 having withdrawn it, insert 

 another peg in its place, 

 replace the 'stopper,' and 

 then go to No. 2. If you 

 find a nest here in about 

 as advanced a state as 

 that in No. 1 replace the 

 plug and let it remain till 

 sufficient additions have 

 been made to serve as 

 your second specimen. By 

 adopting the same plan 

 . . . you will be enabled 

 to obtain a series of nests 

 ranging from the very 

 commencement of the 

 work to the completion 

 of the structure. . . 



When the colony begins 

 to increase and become 

 strong you will find it con- 

 venient to make the in- 

 spection after nightfall 

 and to introduce within 

 the aperture a few drops 

 of chloroform before 

 attempting to secure the 

 nest. . . . The advan- 

 tages of this plan are 

 obvious when we con- 

 sider that under ordinary 

 circumstances it is by 

 the merest accident we 

 stumble upon a nest at its 

 commencement. 

 Beside the certainty of 



obtaining specimens, than which but few objects 

 in nature are more exquisitely beautiful, oppor- 

 tunities are afforded of observing by daily 

 inspection the progress of the work from its 

 commencement ; and when the number of workers 

 has so far increased as to render an inspection 

 of the nest in its original situation no longer 

 agreeable or safe you have only to treat them, 

 after dusk in the evening, to a moderate dose of 

 chloroform, and then, before they have time to 

 recover from the stupor into which they have been 

 thrown, transfer the nest with its inmates to your 

 own house, having previously provided yourself 

 with a roomy glazed box, some eighteen inches to 

 two feet square. In this box let the nest be 

 suspended, but take care so to contrive it that it 

 shall nearly, but not quite, touch the bottom of the 

 box and that it can be gradually raised as the work 

 progresses. . . . By way of encouragement, 

 let the wasps be supplied with sugar moistened 

 with beer or water. Place the box near the 

 window of any convenient room. Let there be 

 a tunnel or covered way from an aperture in 

 the window, so as to allow ingress and egress 

 without permitting them to have the range of the 

 room. In order that you may be enabled to see 

 what is going on inside as well as outside the nest, 

 it will be necessary to clip away with a pair of 

 scissors the shell or covering, so as to expose the 

 combs completely ; this should be done as soon as 

 the nest is completely fixed, and before the 

 insects completely recover from their lethargic 

 state. The whole process of cell-constructing, 



Wasps Nfst— Fivi Davg Work 



egg-depositing, larvae-feeding, etc., will then be 

 revealed to you." 



Then in a further paper Mr. Stone elaborately 

 treats of the habits and economy of wasps he had 

 under observation . These appear to have been Vespa 

 ntfa, V. holsatica, (= V. sylvestris), and V. vulgaris. 



The papers by Mr. Stone, from which the above 

 extracts are taken, appeared in the " Intelligencer," 

 vol, vi„ pp. 69, 77, 84, and 173. 



John T. Carri.\<.ton. 



Green Woodpecker at Leith Hill. — In 

 recent years the green woodpecker (Gccimus viride) 

 appears to have become more common than 

 formerly. In the Leith Hill district of Surrey at 

 almost any time of the day its curious laughing- 

 note may be heard, and if a quiet watch be 

 maintained it may be seen flying from tree to tree 

 in search of its food. Although the bird is so often 

 heard its nest is rarely found. Among the other 

 scansores of the district that are fairly common 

 are the nuthatch, the creeper, the wrv-neck, and 

 less frequently the greater spotted woodpecker. 

 Whilst dealing with birds it may be noted that 

 the linnet is this year very abundant in the same 

 locality. This is the more curious in that the 

 furze on the common has been to a large extent 

 destroyed. The linnets in consequence have left 

 the hillside and are building in the hedges and 

 bramble-clumps of the valleys. — D.J. Rice, j,John 

 Street, Bedford Row, London. 



