78 



SCIENCE-GOSSIP. 



[Amul 1, 18CG. 



THE PROGRESS OF A WASP'S NEST. 



QUEEN WASPS were very numerous during the 

 months of April and May last year. As soon 

 as the spring weather tempted them out from their 

 winter hiding-places, they began building their won- 

 derful paper dwellings, hanging them under the 

 eaves of houses, taking possession of empty or 

 abandoned k bee-hives, and fixing them in various 

 other places. I obtained a good many specimens ; 

 one only just begun, attached to the edge of a 

 honeycomb in a bee-hive ; others as big as walnuts ; 

 some a little larger. It was a most interesting sight 

 to watch the little architects collecting their ma- 

 terials, or, having brought them home, spreading 

 them out into thin sheets of paper for the walls of 

 their houses. 



The old door of the tool-house in the garden was 

 a favourite place, as the wood, being poplar, was of 

 a soft fibrous texture. The wasps would alight, 

 sometimes two or three at a time, on this door, and 

 would immediately begin tearing off small fibres 

 with their hard jaws, moistening them with saliva, 

 and every now and then rolling the mass into a con- 

 venient shape with their feet, —making, in fact, 

 what the paper-makers call "half stuff." A very 



Fig. 82. Nest— April 25th, at noon. 



short time, a minute or less, sufficed for the collec- 

 tion of a burden, which might be about the size of 



Fig. 83. Nest— April 25th, at 8 p.m. 



a linseed. The wasp would then manage to tuck 

 it under its chin and fly off with it. 



Wasps invariably work backwards, removing 

 fibres from a space about three-quarters of an inch 

 long, and an eighth of an inch wide, leaving a wet 

 mark on the wood. 



Fig. 84. Nest— April 2Cth, at 8 a.m. 



A wren began building her nest in a small hole in 

 a wall where a piece of brick had been pulled out. 

 After watching her for some days, we found that the 



Fig. 85. Nest— April 2Sth, at 8 p.m. 



work came to a standstill, and at the end of a week, 

 when no further progress was apparent, one of our 

 children pulled out the nest to see what was the 



Fig. 86. Nest— April 2;th, at 8 a.m. 



matter. The cause of the wren having forsaken its 

 nest was soon apparent, for there, attached to some of 

 the fibres of grass, was a beautiful little wasp's nest 



