SOCIAL-WASPS. 87 



fection of any art; animals go clearly to a given 

 point — but they can go no further. We may, how- 

 ever, learn something from their perfect knowledge 

 of what is within their range. It is not improbable 

 that if man had attended in an earlier state of society 

 to the labours of wasps, he would have sooner known 

 how to make paper. We are still behind in our 

 arts and sciences, because we have not always been 

 observers. If we had watched the operations of in- 

 sects, and the structure of animals in general, with 

 more care, we might have been far advanced in the 

 knowledfi^e of many arts, which are yet in their in- 

 fancy, for nature has given us abundance of patterns. 

 We have learnt to perfect some instruments of sound, 

 by examining the structure of the human ear; and 

 the mechanism of an eye has suggested some valu- 

 able improvements in achromatic glasses. 



R'aumur has given a very interesting account of the 

 wasps of Cayenne, which hang their nests m trees.* 

 Like the bird of Africa called the Loxia, they fabricate 

 a perfect house, capable of containing many hundreds 

 of their community, and suspend it on high out of 

 the reach of attack. But the Cayenne wasp is a 

 more expert artist than the bird. He is a card- 

 maker; — and travellers of veracity agree that the 

 card with which he forms the exterior covering of his 

 abode is so smooth, so strong, so uniform in its 

 texture, and so white, that the most skilful manu- 

 facturer of this substance might be proud of the 

 work. 



The nest of the card-makingj wasp is impervious 

 to water. It hangs upon the branch of a tree, as 

 represented in the engraving; and those rain-drops 



* Mcmoires sur les Tnsectes, torn vi., mem. vii. See also 

 Bonnet, vol. ix. 



