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black-and-white presence in people's houses 

 in the spring, but they do not seem so 

 curious nor so friendly. Their investiga- 

 tions seem rather aimless, in comparison 

 with those of their yellow relative, and 

 their manner is much more suspicious and, 

 if one may say so, tempestuous. 



Only the perfect females or "queens" 

 of the Vesp^ survive the winter, and 

 when they are wakened to life by the 

 warm sun of early summer, each little 

 queen wasp has upon her shoulders the 

 responsibility of the whole family, — she 

 must build her own house as well as take 

 care of her own offspring. She does not 

 start in life, like the queen bee, with thou- 

 sands of helpers ready to do all the work 

 and even to feed her royal highness. 



She must do everything for herself, at 

 least at first. 



When she has found a place to her 

 mind, perhaps in the branches of a tree, 

 or under the projecting eaves of a build- 



