NOTES BY THE WAT 117 



we have a musical spider. One sunny April day, 

 while seated on the borders of the woods, my atten- 

 tion was attracted by a soft, uncertain, purring sound 

 that proceeded from the dry leaves at my feet. On 

 investigating the matter, I found that it was made 

 by a busy little spider. Several of them were trav- 

 eling about over the leaves as if in quest of some 

 lost cue or secret. Every moment or two they 

 would pause, and by some invisible means make the 

 low, purring sound referred to. Dr. J. A. Allen 

 says the common turtle, or land tortoise, also has a 

 note, — a loud, shrill, piping sound. It may yet 

 be discovered that there is no silent creature in 

 nature. 



THE SAND HORNET 



I turned another (to me) new page in natural 

 history, when, during the past season, I made the 

 acquaintance of the sand wasp or hornet. From 

 boyhood I had known the black hornet, with his 

 large paper nest, and the spiteful yellow- jacket, 

 with his lesser domicile, and had cherished proper 

 contempt for the various indolent wasps. But the 

 sand hornet was a new bird, — in fact, the harpy 

 eagle among insects, — and he made an impression. 

 While walking along the road about midsummer, I 

 noticed working in the towpath, where the ground 

 was rather inclined to be dry and sandy, a large 

 yellow hornet-like insect. It made a hole the size 

 of one's little finger in the hard, gravelly path 

 beside the roadbed. When disturbed, it alighted 



