115 
April, 1887.] history society of Wisconsin. 
On August 12 we took 32 wasps from nest number two half a 
mile north of the nest, on the lake. 16 of them were marked 
bright red. While we were setting them free the boat was either 
touching the shore, or was only ten or fifteen yards distant from 
it; the wind blew toward the shore so that it was difficult to 
keep off. 8 of the wasps returned to the boat, some of them 
once, some of them twice. 6 or 7 flew in a straight line toward 
their nest, over the water and against the wind ; the remaining 
17 or 18 flew toward the shore, taking a northerly, northeasterly 
or northwesterly course. 
On the same day we set free 40 wasps two hundred yards 
south of the nest on the shore of the lake. Of these 16 were 
marked blue. They seemed to fly in all directions but our ob¬ 
servations were made under difficulties as most of them returne 
and alighted either on the cage or on us. \\ e received three 
stings in driving them away as they came back. Towar t e 
end of the experiment, when we had their movements more un 
der control, 4 marked wasps returned to the cage after they a 
been gone two minutes. 
In our two days’ experimenting we had set free from t is nes 
135 wasps at different points and varying distances and i 
seemed fairly certain that until they were lost to view t ley 
not fly toward their nest so frequently as they flew in an oppo 
site direction ; and it appeared that they were at a loss to . now 
which way to go, since they so often returned once oi twice . 
the cage to take a new start. It is of interest to remem er in 
this connection that carrier-pigeons, when making longjourneys, 
often return to the starting point when they have lost t eir way, 
and try a new direction. 
What was the ultimate fate of these wasps ? ^ ere 
completely lost that they never returned to the nest oi . 
they, after some difficulty and delay, succeed in n mg © 
way back? To settle this question we at once began to a e 
large numbers from the nest and to kill them by heat. e 
examined them to see if we could find any of those t a we 
On August 12, among 157 wasps killed we found 4 marked 
