180 Selby on Wasps. 



occasionally even of more than a thousand. According to Dr. 

 Traill, each herd has its own leader, whom the others implicitly 

 follow, so that, if perchance he should guide them wrong, they 

 fall victims to their blind confidence. The northern islanders 

 turn this singular propensity to their own advantage; for, on 

 the appearance of a herd in their neighbourhood, they start in 

 pursuit of them, and endeavour to drive the leader ashore, in 

 order that they may secure the whole herd. These Porpoises 

 not only simulate humanity in submitting to government and 

 united action, but also in the force of their affections ; they are 

 said to be strongly attached to each other, and especially to their 

 young ; when one is stranded, or in danger, the others, on hear- 

 ing the cry of distress, rush impetuously to his relief. Either 

 cause may account for the disastrous fate of the Northumbrian 

 herd ; the leader may have missed his way in passing along an 

 irregular and rocky coast, or one of the herd may have been 

 intercepted by some of the rocks, which, at Boulmer Point, 

 extend far into the sea, and the others, impelled by the amiable 

 instincts of their nature, may have rushed heedlessly among 

 rocks and shallows, from which they could not escape. Indeed, 

 they must have come ashore with great violence, and even leapt 

 out of the deeper water, since some of them were lying near to 

 the high-tide mark. When the bonds of their society are broken, 

 they appear to be miserably helpless ; a few separated from the 

 herd, unable to guide themselves, were taken at distant places ; 

 two of them at Craster, three miles north of Howick Burn, and 

 one at Berlin Car, five miles to the south. One, indeed, of those 

 at Howick Burn might have escaped, for the water in which it 

 lay was deep enough onward to the sea for the purpose ; but, 

 deprived of his leader and of his companions, he made no 

 attempt to escape, and quietly submitted to his fate. 



Observations on the Wasps observed within the limits of the Club. 

 By P. J. Selby, Esq. 



[With a Plate.] 



The members of the family Vespidce, or Wasps, are in Britain 

 restricted to species of the typical genus Vespa. By F. Smith, 

 in his Catalogue of British Hymenoptera Aculeata contained in 

 the British Museum, seven species are enumerated, viz. : — V. 

 crabro, the Hornet ; V. vulgaris, the Common Wasp ; V. Ger- 

 manica ; V. rufa ; V. sijlvestris, Campanular Wasp ; V. Britan- 

 nica, Tree Wasp ; and V. arborea, Northern Wasp. 



Of these seven species, I have only been able (at least satis- 

 factorily) to make out three as existing within the limits of 



