FINISHING THE NEST 113 



safe, or else the first cells will have been 

 built, and the whole enclosed in an envel- 

 ope that completely conceals what is going 

 on inside. 



As soon as the workers of an undis- 

 turbed nest begin to come out, they go to 

 work upon the walls of the nest, adding 

 layer after layer, until sometimes there are 

 a dozen or more. 



Quickly the little nest made 

 by the mother wasp increases 

 in size, when all is well with 

 the swarm. 



But there seem to be a great 

 many vicissitudes in the lives of the hornets 

 and yellow-jackets, and one may often find 

 in an out-building a dozen of their little 

 round nests, begun but never finished. 



Doubtless something happened to the 

 queen before her first brood was hatched. 

 A greedy bird may have swallowed her, a 

 boy may have killed her, she may have 

 fallen into the water and been drowned, or 



