242 NORTH AMERICAN INSECTS. 



tree, while another makes a globular paper-nest of combs 

 under ground, which nest is sometimes a foot in diameter, 

 and aetually resembles a subterranean city, having houses 

 and streets, the whole being surrounded and fortified with 

 a paper wall. 



But of all the ichneumon tribe, probably the Hornet 

 ( Vespa chartana) is the most celebrated for its ingeniously- 

 built dwelling, it being of a globular form and filled with 

 cells, which are constructed of the paper which this insect 

 manufactures out of wood. These hornet's nests are found 

 every where in North and South America, either suspend- 

 ed in the air or closely built around the branch of a tree or 

 under the eaves of houses. They are a sort of solid, round 

 vessel, often more than a foot in diameter, the walls of 

 which are of a white or gray color, and in appearance and 

 thickness closely resemble thin pasteboard. Such a nest 

 often contains a dozen or more combs, is several stories 

 high, with hexagonal cells, and has its entrance, which is 

 about the diameter of a finger, at the bottom. The inhab- 

 itants of such a dwelling, several thousand in number, are 

 composed of workers, females, and males, the latter of which 

 are the largest. The workers and the females are provided 

 with a sting, which is justly much dreaded, children hav- 

 ing not unfrequently died from its effects, and adults often 

 having experienced severe suffering from the same cause. 

 The hornets are of a dark-brown color, and are known to 

 every one who has spent much time in the country. 



It would be interesting, and possibly might be made very 

 profitable, to institute experiments with the wood from 

 which these insects manufacture their paper ; for if a new 

 material for the manufacture of paper could thus be discov- 

 ered, the fortunate discoverer would be well repaid, and the 

 country would really be enriched by possessing another source 

 of revenue, and we should not be obliged to import so many 

 rags from Trieste and other Austrian sea-ports. 



