landmarks. And the wonder of it is that
their interest in each nest is so temporary. A burrow is dug,
provisioned and closed up, all in two or three days, and then another
is made in a new place with everything to learn over again.

From this time (July thirteenth) on to the first of September our
garden was full of these wasps, and they never lost their fascination
for us, although owing to a decided difference between their taste and
ours as to what constituted pleasant weather all our knowledge of them
was gained by the sweat of our brows. When we wished to utilize the
cool hours of the morning or of the late afternoon in studying them,
or thought to take advantage of a cloud which cast a grateful shade
over the sun at noonday, where were our Ammophiles? Out of sight
entirely, or at best only to be seen idling about on the flowers of
the onion or sorrel. At such a time they seemed to have no mission in
life and no idea of duty. But when the air was clear and bright and
the mercury rose higher and higher, all was changed. Their favorite
working hours were from eleven in the morning to three in the
afternoon, and when they did work they threw their whole souls into
it. It was well that it was so, for they certainly needed all the
enthusiasm and perseverance that they could muster for such wearisome
and disappointing labor. Hour after hour was passed in search, and
often there was nothing to show at the end of it, for, since the
caterpillars that they wanted were nocturnal species, most of them
were under ground in the day-time. The species observed by Fabre knew,
by some subtle instinct, where to find the worm, and unearthed it from
its burrow. _Urnaria_, on the contrary, never dug for her prey, but
hunted on bare ground, on the purslane, and most of all on the
bean-plants. These were examined carefully, the wasp going up and down
the stems and looking under every leaf, but the search was so
frequently unsuccessful that in estimating their work we are inclined
to think that they can scarcely average one caterpillar a day. When
they were hunting over bare ground they often paused and seemed to
listen, and in the beginning we expected to see them burrow down and
drag a victim from under the soil, but this never happened.

In this species, as in every one that we have studied, we have a most
interesting variation among the different individuals, not only in
methods but in character and intellect. While one was beguiled