CH. VI.] HORNETS 107 



attack those who are content to observe them simply ; 

 and he adds, that he has seen ladies who had be- 

 come familiar enough with them to allow them to 

 settle on their hands. 



The hornet is the largest of the wasp tribe, and 

 were its motions at all equal to its strength, ferocity, 

 and the venom of its poison, it would be a tiger 

 among insects. It is a most unmerciful enemy of 

 the hive bee, whose carcass forms the food of its 

 young ; and its sting is very dangerous even to the 

 human race. Reaumur states, that " Don Allan 

 Chartreux, having imprudently disturbed a hornets' 

 nest was stung by one, which caused so much pain 

 as to almost make him faint. He reached his con- 

 vent with difficulty, and remained for three days in 

 a state of fever." 



The manners, habitation, &c. of these and the 

 other social wasps are essentially the same. They 

 all build their nests from a sort of paper more or 

 less fine, and in all several females live peaceably 

 together. 



The Vespa Nidulans of Fabricius, a foreign spe- 

 cies of wasp, appends its nest to a branch {Jig' 1). 

 It first forms a thick pasteboard case, which com- 

 pletely withstands the seasons, and within this it 

 places layers of combs partitioned off with surpris- 

 ing regularity. The access to the cells is by means 

 of a hollow and round passage, which runs along 

 the centre of the whole nest. 



To make cells is the same thing as to make a 

 comb, with the hornet and the wasp ; not so with 

 this species : the mere juxtaposition of cells does 

 not constitute a comb. After making the outside 

 covering, they partition it off into shelves, and ta 

 these it is that the cells are appended {Jig- 2). 



The Vespa Gallica of Linnaeus attaches its nest 

 to a stubble, or a small branch in a bush ; the form 

 is elegant, being composed of one or two cakes, and 

 twenty or thirty cells ; it is placed vertically, and 



