The Odyneri 



nary stone; at least, one's finger-nails made 

 but a poor impression upon its outer layer, 

 which the sun's rays had dried more thor- 

 oughly than the rest. But, when I suc- 

 ceeded in observing these workers at the 

 moment when they were beginning to bore 

 a hole, they taught me that they did not 

 need to subject their teeth to so harsh an 

 ordeal. 



" I saw that the Wasp begins by soften- 

 ing the sand which she proposes to remove. 

 Her mouth discharges upon it a drop or 

 two of water, which is promptly swallowed 

 by the sand, turning it instantly into a soft 

 paste which her teeth scrape and remove 

 without difficulty. Two of her legs, the 

 foremost pair, immediately proceed to 

 gather it into a little pellet, about the size 

 of a currant-seed. It is with this pellet, the 

 first one removed, that the Wasp lays the 

 foundations of the tube which we have de- 

 scribed. She carries her pellet of mortar 

 to the edge of the hole which she has just 

 made by removing it; her teeth and feet 

 turn it about, flatten it and make it stand up 

 higher than it did before. This done, the 

 Wasp again sets about removing sand and 

 loads herself with another pellet of mortar. 

 Soon she contrives to have extracted enough 

 39 



