56 



manently to establish themselves in new locahties, than it does 

 to induce the nightingale to extend its visits and take up its resi- 

 dence beyond the geographical range assigned to it by nature ; for 

 although many nests have been transplanted from a neighbour- 

 hood where they abound to one where they were comparatively 

 scarce, there did not in a following season appear on that account 

 to be one nest the more in the place to which they were brought. 



"What then became of the host of young females that issued 

 out of these nests ? They could not all have perished ! They 

 were doubtless led instinctively far away from their birthplace 

 into localities more accordant with their habits, or more favour- 

 able to the perpetuation of their kind. 



What becomes of all the young queens, which in the Autumn 

 leave the nest in which they were reared, can only be a matter of 

 conjecture, but it does appear strange that so few should succeed 

 in founding colonies in the ensuing spring. 



Their destruction may be accounted for in many ways, from 

 the effects of weather and the like ; but numbers are known to 

 meet their fate in deadly affrays with each other, for the owner- 

 ship of some building site to which both have taken a fancy. 

 Many contests of this kind are on record. Observation also goes 

 to shew that a large number are destroyed by toads which artiully 

 conceal themselves in holes likely to be selected as receptacles for 

 nests. 



Wasps appear to be very liable to the attacks of parasitic 

 insects, which lay their eggs in the nest to the injury and 

 destruction of the legitimate occupants of the cells. 



It seems almost incredible that various species of small 

 Diptera should be allowed with impunity to enter a densely 

 populated wasps' nest, and to deposit their eggs therein, when, 

 in all probability these same flies, if met with outside the nest, 

 Avould be pounced upon as legitimate quarry, and made to serve 

 as food for those very larvae \^hich are destined to become food 

 for their progeny ; the more wonderful does this appear when we 

 consider the reception, warm enough in all conscience, but by no 

 means hospitable, which is accorded to tcai^ps -NAhich happen to be 

 of a diflerent species from the legitimate occupants of the nest. 



They are further subject to the attacks of a parasite beetle 

 ^Khipiphorns Paradoxus — which deposits its eggs in large 



