APRIL, 1900. PECKHAM— INSTINCTS AND HABITS OF WASPS. 
87 
doubtless used, for when she pulled it out it was quite limp and 
helpless. She held it in her mandibles with its back up and gave 
it a very prolonged sting under the neck, before carrying it home. 
While carrying another cricket toward her nest she paused by the 
way, and clasping its neck in her mandibles, gave it one long tight 
squeeze. 
In coming home this wasp almost invariably approached the 
nest by one particular path. She would alight upon a stump some 
eight or ten feet distant, and would then descend into the long 
grass and follow the runway which passed through it, her progress 
from the stump into the hole being entirely screened from any 
but a very observant eye. The other wasp of this species which 
we had watched, had a nest on a bare spot of ground with no 
protection of any sort, and made it even more conspicuous by 
leaving un scattered the heap of earth pellets which she had carried 
out. The difference may be partly accounted for by the fact that 
the grass-grown nest was evidently in a large natural cavity which 
ran deep into the ground, so that whatever excavation was neces- 
sary could be carried on out of sight. 
It is evident from these observations that Chlorion does not 
make a new nest for each egg, but that, like Ccrccris, Philanthus 
and others, she provisions a nlmiber of cells leading from one 
main gallery. 
Pompilus atrox Dhalb* 
While we were working on the island, one morning late in 
July, we saw a large wasp enter a natural crevice in the hillside. 
She was new to us, and although she came out and flew away 
almost immediately, we resolved to watch the spot in the httpe 
that she had something more than a momentary interest in it. 
After a wait of two hours she appeared again and made another 
brief visit to the hole, showing that she had, in all probability, 
selected it for a nesting place. This second visit took place at 
noon, and we saw no more of the w^asp that day, although we re- 
mained on guard until four o'clock. On the following day she 
visited the spot three times before two o'clock, when a heavy rain 
came on, and drove us to shelter. The next morning found us on 
hand early, for we thought that the storing of the nest could not 
be delayed much longer. At nine o'clock the wasp paid the place 
a short visit, and again at half past ten we saw her approaching, 
this time with even more than the usual signs of excitement. She 
was a really beautiful creature, instinct with vitality and the im- 
personation of grace and energy, the red spots on her body flash- 
ing and the steel-blue wings quivering in the sunlight. After a 
brief inspection she ran to the edge of the grass eight feet away, 
