SOCIAL-WASPS. 69 



exhibits some resemblance, in size and colour, to a Welsli 

 wig hung out to dry. We have seen more than one of 

 these nests on the same tree, at Catrine, in Ayrshire, and 

 at A¥emyss Bay, in Renfrewshire. The tree which the 

 Britannic wasp prefers is the silver fir, whose broad flat 

 branch serves as a protection to the suspended nest both 

 from the sun and the rain. AYe have also known a wasp's 

 nest of this kind in a gooseberry-bush, at Eed-house Castle, 

 East Lothian. The materials and structure are nearly the 

 same as those employed by the common wasp, and which 

 we have already described. (J. E.) 



A singular nest of a species of wasp is figured by 

 Eeaumur, but is apparently rare in this country, as Kirby 

 and Spence mention only a single nest of similar construc- 

 tion, found in a garden at East-Dale. This nest is of a 

 flattened globular figure, and composed of a great number 

 of envelopes, so as to assume a considerable resemblance to 

 a half-expanded Provence rose. The British specimen 

 mentioned by Kirby and Spence had only one platform of 

 cells ; Eeaumur had two ; but there was a large vacant 

 space, which would probai3ly have been filled with cells, 

 had the nest not been taken away as a specimen. The 

 whole nest was not much larger than a rose, and was com- 

 posed of paper exactly similar to that employed by the 

 common ground- wasp.* 



* Two British species of wasp, Vespa Holsatica, Fabr., and Vespa 

 Britannica, Leach, if indeed they be truly distinct species, make pendent 

 vespiaries, attached to the branch of a shrub or tree. The nest of the 

 Vespa Holsatica is said to be much larger than that of the other, and in 

 the north of England it is often found in gooseberry-bushes. A nest of 

 this kind we have ourselves seen in such a bush, in Derbyshire, — it was 

 pendent and loosely constructed externally of foliaceous layers. In the 

 Mag. of Nat. Hist. 1839, p. 458, Mr. Shuckard gives an account of the 

 nest of a wasji, which he regards as Vespa Britannica, — remarkable for 

 the material of which it was constructed, and for the locality in which 

 it was found. This nest, which was exhibited at a meeting of the 

 Entomological Society, was foiuid near Croydon, built in a sparroAv's 

 nest, and attached to the lining feathers. " The smallness of the nest," 

 says Mr. Shuckard, " and also of the tier of cells, as well as the peculiar 

 material of which it appeared composed, led to a discussion, the tendency 

 of which seemed to support the opinion that it was most probably the 



