The Mason-Wasps 



the egg, which a mere nothing is enough to 

 endanger. By what means will this very- 

 delicate germ escape the perils of the 

 crowd? 



As I foresaw by my process of reasoning, 

 the egg is slung from the ceiling of the cell. 

 A very short thread fastens it to the top 

 wall and lets it hang free in space. The 

 first time that I saw this egg, quivering at 

 the end of its thread at the least jerk and 

 confirming by its oscillations the correctness 

 of my theoretical views, I experienced one 

 of those moments of inward joy which atone 

 for much vexation and weariness. I was 

 to have many more such moments, as will 

 be seen. If we pursue our investigations in 

 the insect world with loving patience and a 

 practised eye, we always find some marvel 

 in store for us. The egg, I was saying, 

 swings from the ceiling, held by a very short 

 and extremely fine thread. The cell is 

 sometimes horizontal, sometimes slanting. 

 In the first case, the egg hangs perpendicu- 

 larly to the axis of the cell and its lower end 

 approaches to within a twelfth of an inch of 

 the opposite wall; in the second case, the 

 vertical direction of the egg forms a more 

 or less acute angle with that axis. 



I wished to follow the progress of this 

 46 



