16 



THE LIFE OF AN INSECT. 



of vinegar. The little insect in question has 

 been instructed by the great Creator also to 

 adopt a means of shortening her labour, for it 

 has been observed that she moistens the rock 

 by letting fall a drop or two of fluid upon it 

 from her mouth. By this means her work goes 

 on rapidly. The rubbish soon begins to accu- 

 mulate. It will be scarcely conjectured what 

 this patient labourer does with it. Were we to 

 look narrowly at the sand-bank which such wasps 



Towers of the Sand H'asp. 



frequent, we should find on its surface a number 

 of curious little projections like horns, rising from 



