The nests of our species are all deep, tortuous, and very difficult to excavate. We have never succeeded in finding their pockets; and yet, for various reasons, we feel perfectly certain that all of them are like C. ornata in provisioning, successively, a number of cells which lead out of the main gallery. When one of these cells is filled with food, and the egg deposited, it is probably closed up, and thus separated from the runway. From our experience late in the season with the nests of another wasp, we are inclined to think that we made a mistake in looking for pockets at the lower end of the tunnel. Had we searched higher up, at the point of the curve, we might have found them, the lower part of the gallery probably being designed merely for a dwelling–place for the mother of the family. [Illustration: CERCERIS CLYPEATA] But although we did not get distinct pockets, there was, in at least one nest, a supply of food that would have far exceeded the wants of a single larva. We did not succeed in finding eggs on different groups of beetles; but from a nest into which the wasp was still carrying food we took a half–grown larva which was identified as being hers. The fact, too, that a wasp occupies a nest for so long a time as ten days or two weeks points to the conclusion that she uses it for a number of eggs which are laid at intervals. Cerceris digs her nest, deep as it is, all at once. In this she is a contrast to her near relatives of the genus Philanthus, who busy themselves for an hour or so every morning with fresh excavations. On the eighth of July the weather was so warm and bright that we went down to the garden at half past eight o’clock, knowing that it was rather early, but hoping that the hot sunshine would tempt the wasps to industry. We had walked up and down several times, when suddenly, right in the pathway, a nest appeared. A great quantity of loose earth had been taken out and heaped up, probably on the preceding day, and in the midst of this a little hole had been opened since we passed before. The place looked so promising that we sat down to watch it, and a few minutes later we were rewarded by a glimpse of some antennæ down the gallery, and then a little face with yellow markings appeared but quickly vanished. Now followed a very coquettish performance. The wasp came slowly creeping up again and again, only to drop out of sight as soon as she had reached the opening. After a time she grew bolder, and sat in her doorway, twitching her head this way and that in a very expressive manner, as though she were planning the work of the day; but it was plain that although she was up early, business cares were not weighing heavily upon her mind, for forty minutes passed before she came out of the nest, and after making three or four circles about the spot, flew away.