The Mason-Wasps 



nest, covering it with a thick rind of mud 

 under which all the elegance of the pottery 

 disappears. I surprise a Pelopaeus at the 

 moment when she is spreading her first pel- 

 lets to form an outer casing. The nest is 

 fastened to a wall coated with mortar. 

 The idea occurs to me to take it away, in 

 the vague hope of beholding something 

 new. And something new there is, nay 

 more, something so absurd that one would 

 never have dared to foresee it. Let me be- 

 gin by explaining that naught remains of the 

 nest, when I have removed it and put it in 

 my pocket, except a thin, broken line, mark- 

 ing the circumference of the clod of mud. 

 Within this ring, save for a few fragments 

 of mud, the wall has resumed the whiteness 

 of its coat of mortar, a very different colour 

 from that of the nest, which is an ashen 

 grey. 



The Pelopaeus arrives with her load of 

 clay. Without any hesitation that I can 

 perceive, she alights on the deserted spot 

 and deposits her pellet there, spreading it 

 slightly. The operation would have been 

 conducted no differently on the nest itself. 

 Judging by the quiet and zealous way in 

 which the Wasp is working, there is no doubt 

 but that she really believes herself to be 

 114 



