80 NATURAL HISTORY 



length in the unimpregnated state. The number of ova which is con- 

 tained in one of the oviducts cannot be easily ascertained ; but I have 

 been able to count fifty, so that at this calculation she will lay 600 

 eggs. The eggs nearest the vagina are largest, of an oblong oval 

 shape : the largest are about one-eighth of an inch in length, and they 

 gradually diminish in size till they are insensibly lost. As the ova 

 diminish in size they become rounder, till at last they become perfectly 

 round. 



Hornets copulate like the common fly, by the male getting on tbe 

 back of the female, but in the act of coition he is bent almost round. 

 The female is also bent, but not near so much ; and during the act the 

 male shakes his wings, and seems to emit like the male silk-moth 1 , &c. 

 The two which I saw continued between five and six minutes : this 

 was in the beginning of October. 



Of the Sting. — The sting is placed between the vagina and anus in 

 the anterior perinseuni, on a convex shell which is divided in the middle. 

 It is about one- fourth of an inch in length, of a black shining colour. 

 It is thickest at its origin, and flat, having a little groove on the end 

 inside, which is lost in its middle, becoming flat, and the sting ends in 

 a round sharp point. The sting is attached by a joint above the vagina, 

 and is flat and broader at this part. The sting from this joint takes a 

 bend which answers to the convexity of the shell. In the shell there 

 is a groove in which the sting is received when not in use, so that when 

 drawn back -into this groove it does not project above one-half of its 

 length. On the upper part of this shell are placed two small horny 

 parts, about one-eighth of an inch in length, of the thickness of a 

 bristle : they are convex on their outer side, flat'on their inner, and when 

 the sting is drawn in, it comes in between them and is of the same 

 length exactly : they are darker coloured at their ends, and are there 

 beset with small hairs : they are nearly of the same thickness through 

 their whole length, are not perfectly straight, but take on a little bend 

 laterally in the middle ; they may be called ' feelers,' for they would 

 seem to have a power of knowing what to sting by these two parts. 

 The glands for secreting the poison are two small ducts about two inches 

 in length, of the thickness of a horsehair, and nearly of the same thick- 

 ness through their whole length, excepting within half an inch of the 

 reservoir for the poison, when they become smaller, and enter that bag- 

 separately, on the upper part, about a pin's breadth asunder. These 

 glands or ducts lie doubled up several times on each side above the 

 vagina and beginning of the oviducts, and may be easily dissected or 



1 ['Animal Economy,' p. 461.] 



