HORNET, in zoology, a very bold and venomous insect of the flying kind. It greatly resembles the wasp; only it is twice as large, and the head is of a longer and slenderer shape, and the eyes formed somewhat in the figure of a half moon. They build underground, and in winter hide themselves in hollow trees. They feed on flesh, and when very hungry will seize upon a small bird. Mouffet relates, that they have been seen singly to pursue and kill a sparrow, and afterwards feed on its flesh.—Mr Evelyn informs us, that they are very pernicious to trees, and will peel them round to the very timber, as if they had been unbarked by cattle. They are destroyed by stopping up their entrances with tar or goose-dung, or conveying the fumes of brimstone into their cells.