386 THE ZOOLOGIST. 
containing bits of reed and the elytra of green Donacia beetles or 
gyrinus that are washed in from submarine peat-beds, which 
may be seen at neap-tides; and that the shore has receded is 
the local opinion, for buildings stood where the sea has en- 
croached. On the other hand, a charter of Louis VII., dated 
1156, calls St. Omer, asthe name might suggest, a town situated 
on the seashore, and maps of more recent date show a river 
flowing down from it that entered an inlet of the sea which crept 
in on the south side of Calais, and made Sangatte a promontory 
of the cliffs. Whether owing to blown sand pounded by the 
waves from the chalk flints or embankment, St. Omer, like 
Sandwich in Kent, no longer hears the wild sea waves. Thomas 
Mouffet relates that in the year 1552 he saw among the stones 
on the top of the Chatmell Hills two wasps that were fighting. I 
have seen Vespa germanica coupled in November. When the 
female hybernates she tucks in her wings. One day I saw a 
wasp flying about a branch where flies were basking in the sun, 
catch one with a snap, and, twirling it round in its jaws, slowly 
devour it. I secured the gourmand, and enclosed it with a- 
‘bumble,’ when I noticed that when the two came in contact 
they lifted themselves on their hinder legs and snapped defiance 
with their mandibles, or, fairly exasperated, they rolled over and 
indulged in a tourney, breast to breast, with extended stings. 
All the time the ‘‘bumble” maintained an angry vitreous whine; 
sometimes both hummed, and then usually their wings were 
agitated, but at times those of the ‘‘bumble”’ seemed in repose. 
Doctor Landois affirms that the male of Bombus terrestris hums 
in A, and its portly female a whole octave higher. The call of 
the queen bee to swarm is well known to bee-keepers. According 
to the ‘Journal of Horticulture and Cottage Gardener’ for 
January, 1876, the first queen that is matured cries in her cell, 
‘‘ off-off-off!’? and, pushing the coverlid aside, joins the com- 
munity; the other. queens, as they come to maturity, also cry 
“ off-off-off!’’ on hearing which the reigning queen runs to and 
fro in a temper, and screams “‘ peep-peep!’’ which is a summons 
to migrate. 
In Devonshire, where the twitter of a Wren in the hedge 
rarely recalls the clatter of the Cicada in sunnier climes, the 
Hover Flies that sparkle like gems from the casket make siren 
