32 



Jugging Yellow Jackets 



(From page 20) 

 and bite and sting with a viciousness un- 

 known to the majority of wasps. 



The best way, perhaps, to destroy these 

 colonies, says Mr. Spaid in "Country Life," 

 is by the sure method which has been used 

 in the South for generat:ons, and is called 

 "jugging" yellow-jackets. When a nest is 

 found a gallon jug two-thirds full of hot 

 water is placd near the opening to the 

 underground community, and the yellow- 

 jackets are then stirred up by beating the 

 ground over the nest with a long pole. The 

 angry wasps swarm out and attack the jug. 

 The loud buzzing in the space above the 

 ¥/ater seems to increase the wrath of the 

 others, and they also find a watery grave. 

 Bumblebees may be caught in the same 

 manner. The illustration shows a com- 

 munity thus destroyed. The dark space in 

 front of the jug contained the nest, a 

 decayed pine stump having made the ex- 

 cavation easy. To the right lies the nest 

 with the paper covering removed from 

 above. The six tiers of comb are so ar- 

 ranged as to show the last one made — the 

 one the farthest below ground when the 

 nest was in position. This is the most in- 

 teresting comb of all, for it was specially 

 constructed for the males and females, the 

 large cells and snowy-white caps being in 

 strong contrast to the ordinary comb which 

 produces the workers or neuters. To the 

 left on the stone are the yellow-jackets 

 caught in the jug — 785 ; not a large colony, 

 for I have known as many as 2,693 to be 

 taken from one nest, 1,858 having gone 

 into the jug the first time. In front of the 

 heap of workers are three females, show- 

 ing their large size. These fully developed 

 females, as well as the males, are produced 

 during the month of September, and, as 

 in the case of the other wasps, the females 

 alone survive the winter and start the new 

 communities in the spring, the males and 

 the hosts of workers dying in the fall. 



In the Shadow 



Life is lived most truly in the shadow of 

 a great expectation, — expectation of we 

 know not what, whether a task or a vision. 

 — Maurice Maeterlinck. 



Birds & Nature Magazine 



The Junco 



L 



By NELTJE BLANCHAN 



(In ''Bird Neighbors/^) 



EADEN skies above; snow below," 

 is Mr. Parkhurst's suggestive 

 description of this rather timid 

 neighbor, that is only starved into 

 familiarity. When the snow has buried 

 seed and berries, a flock of j uncos, mingling 

 sociably with the sparrows and chickadees 

 about the kitchen door, will pick up scraps 

 of food with an intimacy quite touching in 

 a bird naturally rather shy. Here we can 

 readily distinguish between these "little 

 gray- robed monks and nuns," as Miss Flor- 

 ence Merriam calls them. 



They are trim, sprightly, sleek, and even 

 natty; their dispositions are genial and 

 vivacious, not quarrelsome, like their spar- 

 row cousins, and what is perhaps best about 

 them, they are birds we may surely depend 

 upon seeing in the winter months. A few 

 come forth in September, migrating at night 

 from the deep woods of the north, where 

 they have nested and moulted during the 

 summer; but not until frost has sharpened 

 the air are large numbers of them seen. 

 Rejoicing in winter, they nevertheless do 

 not revel in the deep and fierce arctic 

 blasts, as the snowflakes do, but take good 

 care to avoid the open pastures before the 

 hard storms overtake them. 



Early in the spring their song is some- 

 times heard before they leave us to woo 

 and to nest in the north. Mr. Bicknell de- 

 scribes as "a crisp call-note, a simple trill, 

 and a faint, whispered warble, usually much 

 broken, but not without sweetness." 



^^ 



The Blackbird's Whistle 



THE blackbird's whistle is very human, 

 like a human being playing the flute; 

 an uncertain player, now drawing forth a 

 bar of a beautiful melody — then losing it 

 again. He does not know what quiver or 

 what turn his note will take before it ends ; 

 the note leads him and completes itself. — 

 Richard Jeffries. 



