SOS HABITATIONS Ol INSECT?. 



their jaws from window-framep, po^ts and rail", &c., 

 and, when they have amassed a heap of the filaments, 

 moisten the Avhole with a few drops of a viscid ^lue 

 from their mouth, and, kneading it Avith their jaws into 

 a 5ort of paste or papier mucM^ fly off with it to their 

 nest. This ductile mass they attach to that part of the 

 building upon which they are at work, walkings back- 

 rards and spreading it into laminas of the requisite 

 thinness by means of their jaws, tongue, and legs. This 

 operation is repeated several times, until at length, by 

 aid of fresh supplies of the material and the combined 

 exertions of so many workmen, the proper number of 

 layers of paper that are to compose the roof is finished. 

 This paper is as thin as that of the letter which you 

 are readins:: and vou mav form an idea of the labour 

 which even the exterior of a wasp's nest requires, on 

 beins: told that not fewer tlian fifteen or sixteen sheets 

 of it are usually placed above each other with slight 

 iutervening spaces, making the whole upv/ards of an 

 inch and a half in thickness. When the dome is com- 

 pleted, the uppermost comb is next begun, in which, 

 as well as all the other parts of the building, precisely 

 the same material and the same process, with little va- 

 riation, are employed. In the structure of the con- 

 necting pillars there seems a greater quantity of glue 

 made use of than in the rest of the work, doubtless 

 with \\\<i view of giving them a superior solidity.— 

 When the first comb is finished, the continuation of 

 the roof or walls of the building is brought down 

 lower; a new comb is erected; and thus the work suc- 

 cessively proceeds until the whole is finished. As a 

 comparatively small proportion of the society is cu-* 



