FINISHING THE NEST 115 



I could not ascertain. Then emerging she 

 promptly set to work. Mounting astride 

 on the edge of one of the covering sheets, 

 she pressed her pellet firmly down with 

 her fore-legs till it adhered to the edge, 

 and walking backwards, continued this 

 same process of pressing and kneading till 

 the pellet was used up, and her track was 

 marked by a short dark cord lying along 

 the thin edge to which she fastened it. 

 Then she ran forwards, and, as she re- 

 turned again backwards, over the same 

 ground, she drew the cord through her 

 mandibles, repeating this process two or 

 three times till it was flattened out into a 

 little strip or ribbon of paper, which only 

 needed drying to be indistinguishable from 

 the rest of the sheet to which it had been 

 attached." 



Dr. Ormerod also discovered that each 

 wasp has not a place of her own at which 

 to work, but that all work anywhere and 

 anyhow, as bees build their combs. They 



