The Montgomery advertiser., 1904-10-10

I cut away a piece of the wall. It was
 only a tiny piece. but the wasp, in hel | tour of inspection. instantly detected the mutilation and began making re. | pairs. At another time I tried put. ting another wasp's egg in her nest | during her absence, and you should | have seen the fuss she made when she discovered the imposition. Some wasp: regularly lay their eggs In other wasps' nests and are not detected. but they have had centuries of experience in the deception"
 l Miss Enteman began to hunt wasps in the fields as a child, when her idea l of wasp study was to catch one of the | insects in a net, pickle him in a bottle and label him for future references She has kept swarms in her house where they have been her constant | companions. When she went to college her wasps went with her. and she never lost touch of her wasp study even while engaged in other work. She has travelled from one end of the coun- try to the other collecting them and has found more species of the wasr family than most persons dream are in existence.
 It was five years ago that Miss En- teman began to make wasps her pet study, and she says she has become more interested in them each year
 "Wasps are a sadly misjudged lot ' she afirms." There are so many things of interest to be found in the study and care of them that the student never grows weary"
 Among the facts which her observa- tions have taught her about wasps is that a wasp does not sting unless it is angry, and 1t does not get angry unless 1t Is disturbed. The reputa- ton which wasps have acquired of be- ing violent tempered is, she says, un- warranted, The popular idea Is that they work and live all day in a state of hatred toward other creatures and are ever ready to attack anything that comes in their way and fight 1t to the death. Nothing could be further from the truth. according to the wasp student.
 The wasp Is a hard working, indus- trious little fellow, who goes about at tending to his own business, and will not modest or attack anybody except when the occasion requires 1t. He is no fiercer or more quarrelsome than many other little animals. In the years that Miss Enteman has devoted her time to the study of them she has been stung only a few times. She handles them constantly, taking them from their prisons and holding them in her hands, but 1t Is seldom that one violates her friendship by stinging her
 If one wishes to make the closer ac- quaintance of a wasp, all that Is nec- essary Is to take a drop of honey or syrup and place it on the tip of a finger. The wasp will come and feed himself to his satisfaction on the sweet, and he will never, unless an effort is made to destroy him, sting the person on whose finger he is. When the wasp is taken and kept in captivity he adapts himseH to his surroundings, and. If properly cared for. will thrive in glass jar. Miss Enterman has had a roomful of them imprisoned under her charge. and she has seldom had any die on her hands.
 Wasps do not make a sound when they wish to communicate with each other. Their long, flexible antennae, which all species of the family possess. are organs of speech and hearing as we'll as feeling. The speech of the wasp Is rather feeling than speech. When one meets another and wishes to hold conversation with him he reaches toward him with his antennae. The other wasp extends his "feelers" in the same manner, and soon the/two are carrying on a conversation all to them selves.
 Wasps are of a decidedly sociahle and even bibulous nature. and, given the opportunity. will imbibe lntoxicat- ing liquors in sufficient quantity to be- come drunk. They have grogshops by nature in the shape of overripe. fer mented fruits, and when they feast on these the effect is almost the same on them as multiplicity of cocktails brings upon man. Often in an orr chard where fruit Is lying on the sround there may be seen many wasps AVins about in various stages of in-