SOCIETIES OF BIRDS AND INSECTS. 
541 
a small species, however, termed the Republican Grosbeak 
(Loxia Socia), which lives in numerous societies in the neigh¬ 
bourhood of the Cape of Good Hope, and constructs its nest 
under a sort of roof which is common to the whole colony 
(fig. 281). 
711. It is among Insects that we find the most remarkable 
examples of this kind of social instinct; and the structures 
which are produced by the united labours of a large number, 
working together in harmony, are extremely interesting. The 
nests of Wasps are constructed in this manner. In order to 
Fig. 282 .—Nest op Wasp. 
form the materials for building them, these Insects detach 
with their mandibles the fibres of old wood, which they convert 
by mastication into a sort of pulp that hardens into the con¬ 
sistence of pasteboard; of this substance they construct several 
ranges of hexagonal cells ; and the combs thus formed are 
