USES OF WASPS AND NESTS 169 



haled as a cure for asthma or colds. They 

 are also burned near horses that are 

 troubled with colds or with distemper, and 

 are given to them in their feed "to cure 

 thick-windedness." 



Moffett, moreover, has a friendly word 

 for the wasps, and informs us that " their 

 use is great and singular, for besides that 

 they serve for food to those kind of Hawks 

 which are called Kaistrels or Fleingals, 

 Martinets, Swallows, Owls, to Brocks or 

 Badgers and to the Cameleon : they also 

 do great pleasure and service to men sun- 

 dry ways, for they kill the Phalangium, 

 which is a kind of venomous spider, that 

 hath in all his legs three knots or joynts, 

 whose poyson is perilous and deadly, and 

 yet Wasps do cure their wounds." 



A pair of Carolina wrens in the Blue 

 Ridge mountains once selected a large 

 wasp's nest hanging in the entry of a 

 house in which to take up their winter 

 quarters. 



