April, 1887.] history society of Wisconsin, 103 
time we counted those which entered as usual and those which 
noticed the odor with the following results: 
From 2:45-2:50 p. m. of 84 which entered the nest 27 noticed the odor, 
starting back, circling around, etc. 
“ 2:52-2:57 p. m. of 116 entering 28 noticed the odor. 
We now placed a plate of maple S} ; rup six inches from the 
nest but this attracted no attention from the wasps, which were 
flying just above it, although it was visited by many ants and 
flies and by one bumble bee. 
We were led to our next experiment by noticing the troubles 
of some kittens at the bouse near by which were daily fed with 
meat and bones. The wasps swarmed about them, settling 
thickly upon the food, and could only be safely removed by a 
mixture of persuasion and force in which the kittens, after they 
had been stung several times, became quite skillful. Following 
the suggestion that the scent of animal food might prove attrac¬ 
tive to the wasps, we hid some fresh warm chicken bones under 
several thicknesses of gauze which matched in color the papei 
around the nest, and this bundle we placed four inches to one 
side of the entrance; four inches to the opposite side we placed, 
as a control experiment, a bundle of exactly similar appearance 
which consisted only of some pieces of the gauze rolled together 
and contained no bones. The wasps immediately began to set¬ 
tle on the bundle containing the bones, walking over it in an ex¬ 
cited manner and trying to reach the contents. Even when re¬ 
turning loaded to the nest they frequently seemed unable to re¬ 
sist the appetizing odor and alighted on the gauze. In fifteen 
minutes twenty-five different wasps bad visited this bundle, 
some of them working over it from one to two minutes. Duiing 
this time not a single wasp visited the empty bundle. 
This experiment was repeated. In twelve minutes nineteen 
wasps alighted on the gauze and very persistently tried to get in. 
None visited the empty bundle. 
Again, in eleven minutes seven wasps came to the bundle, 
three of the 7 remained on the gauze fifteen minutes trying to 
get at the bones and we had to drive them away when we took 
the bundle up. None visited the empty bundle. 
