NATURAL HISTORY NOTES. 
329 
scratching away the sand it came upon its burrow, down which it 
went, but not quite out of sight; it backed out almost immediately, 
bringing in its jaws a small pebble which just about fitted the burrow. 
The wasp then flew a distance of four inches and dropped the pebble, 
flew back to the burrow, entered, and went out of sight, but only for 
less than thirty seconds, when if backed out again, and I expected to 
see it fly away, instead of which it flew to the pebble, took it up in its 
jaws, flew back to its burrow, dropped the pebble in, and then flew away. It 
returned in some thirty-five seconds, entered its burrow for a few seconds, 
backing out again, bringing in its jaws the pebble which it had but a 
minute before dropped down the hole ; flying away a distance of nine 
inches it dropped its load, immediately returned to its burrow, around 
which it strutted and turned about exactly like a cock pigeon. It then 
entered, and stayed in the burrow about half a minute, and on backing 
out flew to and picked up the same pebble, with which it flew back to 
its burrow and once more dropped it in ; then it commenced to collect 
smaller pebbles, each one being placed most carefully down the hole 
until it was almost filled up level with the surface. The wasp then 
collected smaller grains of sand, and after placing these in she took 
several jawfuls of the finest sand close to the hole, making the ground 
quite level, over which she strutted a number of times, then flew on 
to the heather, pinching off a dead capsule, which was placed in a 
careless manner just on one side of where the burrow had been ; a 
small twig of heather, half an inch long, was next laid near the 
capsule, then a dead leaf and another capsule, until it was impossible 
to detect the exact place of the burrow. The wasp had now made 
twenty-seven gatherings of pebbles, sand, capsules, &c., and was 
apparently satisfied, for after a final strut round it flew away, and 
though I waited some ten minutes it did not return. It occupied just 
7^ minutes in completing its work. Was it instinct or reason which 
enabled this wasp to protect its eggs during its absence by placing the 
pebble down its burrow ?— Fred. Enoch. 
Alternaria Brassic^ (Berk.), Sacc.— A question is asked (p. 269 
ante) by Mr. W. B. Grove as to Saccardo’s figure of this species 
representing the spores attached by the wrong end. Saccardo figures 
two forms. Mr. Grove does not say to which of them he alludes. 
Figure 736 (Fung. Ital.) represents a plant on Brassica oleracea referred 
by the author to Berkeley’s Macrosporiwn Brassiere, but differing in 
size from that; he calls it “ forma minor.” The spores are represented 
as detached from the sporopliores with the small end downwards, 
which is doubtless the ordinary position, and to me this is nothing 
more nor less than 31. Brassiere, Berk., as Saccardo himself thinks—to 
me not even a form. In figure 1206 of the same work he represents 
another form on Citrus aurantium, which he calls “ forma citri,” in 
which the spores are represented in various positions, one with the 
small end downwards and three with the small end upwards. It is 
this figure to which I suppose Mr. Grove refers, but knowing how 
variable the outline assumed by some of the congeners of this plant is, 
I would not venture to say that Saccardo has misrepresented it; nor 
yet because some of them are borne on the sporopliores the small end 
upwards that it is not a form of Berkeley’s species. Some experience 
in examining these lower fungi inclines me to allow rather wide limits 
for variation of contour of spores. I have this moment under the 
microscope a spore of 3Iacrosporium Brassiere, Berk., with a stem-like 
prolongation of the two ends, fusiform in fact. Corda represents 
Alternaria tenuis, Nees., with narrow ends upwards and downwards; 
Saccardo as having them upwards.— William Phillips, Shrewsbury. 
