INTRODUCTIOX. 21 



tion ; and, above all, to protect the grubs, when they are 

 first developed, from those injuries to which they are 

 peculiarly exposed. Their prospective contrivances for 

 accomplishing these objects are in the highest degree 

 curious. 



Most persons have more or less acquaintance with the 

 hives of the social species of bees and wasps ; but little is 

 generally known of the nests constructed by the solitary 

 species, thougli in many respects these are not inferior 

 to the others in displays of ingenuity and skill. We 

 admire the social bees, labouring together for one common 

 end, in the same way that we look with delight upon the 

 great division of labour in a well-ordered manufactory. As 

 in a cotton-mill some attend to the carding of the raw 

 material, some to its formation into single threads, some to 

 the gathering these threads upon spindles, others to the 

 union of many threads into one, — all labouring with 

 invariable precision because they attend to a single object ; 

 — so do we view with delight and wonder the successive 

 steps by which the hive-bees bring their beautiful work to 

 its completion, — striving, by individual efforts, to accom- 

 plish their general task, never impeding each other by 

 useless assistance, each taking a particular department, and 

 each knowing its own duties. We may, however, not the 

 less admire the solitary wasp or bee, who begins and 

 finishes every part of its destined work ; just as we admire 

 the ingenious mechanic who perfects something useful or 

 ornamental entirely by the labour of his own hands, — ■ 

 whether he be the patient Chinese carver, who cuts the 

 most elaborately-decorated boxes out of a solid piece of 

 ivory, or the turaer of Europe, who produces every variety 

 of elegant form by the skilful application of the simplest 

 means. 



Our island abounds with many varieties of solitary wasps 

 and bees ; and their nests may therefore be easily dis- 

 covered by those who, in the proper seasons, are desirous 

 of observing the peculiarities of their architecture. 



