74 IXSECT ARCHITECTURE. 



a narrow line, for it seems difficult to say what is tlie 

 perfection of any art ; animals go clearly to a given point 

 — but tliey can go no further. We may, however, 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 

 w^oiild have sooner known how to make paper. \\e are 

 still behind in our arts and sciences, because we have not 

 always been observers. If we had watched the operations 

 of insects, and the stnicture of insects in general, with 

 more care, we might have been far advanced in the know- 

 ledge of many arts which are yet in their infancy, 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 

 e^^e has suggested some valuable improvements in achro- 

 matic glasses. 



Eeaumur has given a very interesting account of the 

 wasps of Cayenne (Chartergus nidulans), which hang their 

 nests in trees.* Like the bird of Africa called the social 

 grosbeak (Loxia socio), they fabricate a perfect house, 

 capable of containing many hundreds of their communit}^ 

 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 pasteboard-maker ; — and the card with which he forms 

 the exterior covering of his abode is so smooth, so strong, 

 so imiform in its texture, and so white, that the most 

 skilful manufacturer of this substance might be proud of 

 the work. It takes ink admirably. 



The nest of the pasteboard-making wasp is impervious to 

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

 in the engraving; and those rain-drops which penetrate 

 through the leaves never rest upon its hard and polished 

 surface. A small opening for the entrance of the insects 

 terminates its funnel-shaped bottom. It is impossible to 

 unite more perfectly" the qualities of lightness and strength. 



* IMemoires siir les Insectes, torn, vi., mem. vii. See also Bonnet, 

 vol. ix. 



