WASP ARCHITECTURE 135 



colours were dull red and yellow, and the 

 outer wall was laid on in a fine and very 

 elegant shell pattern. The paper of this 

 nest was so very brittle that it fell to pieces 

 at the slightest touch, and the nest itself 

 was built to fit in an irregular space in a 

 cornice at the corner of a piazza. There 

 were half a dozen or more entrance 

 holes scattered over the walls of the 

 nest, a common thing in this form of 

 architecture. 



Generally wasp paper is grey in colour, 

 for generally it is made of weather-worn 

 wood. Usually the grey is in bands of 

 alternating light and dark, and often these 

 bands are in waving lines, which gives a 

 pretty effect to the whole. 



Favourite building-sites for hornets and 

 the tree-dwelling yellow-jackets, are wood- 

 ed mountain sides. The wasps enjoy the 

 seclusion of the woods, and are apt to be a 

 little inhospitable — some might go so far 

 as to say resentful — when the children of 



