102 EYE SPY 
single wasp will have to admit that he earns his 
living, for it is not every fly that is caught nap- 
ping, and that white face, with its eager, open jaws, 
must needs butt itself against the shingle many 
times before its quest is satisfied. 
But the warlike hornet does not always content 
himself with such small game as a house-fly. Big 
bluebottle-flies are a frequent prey, and juicy cat- 
erpillars are a welcome variety in his daily diet. 
Even the butterfly, with a body nearly as large as 
his own, falls a frequent victim, the scimitar-like 
jaws severing the painted wings in a twinkling, 
either during flight, or falling one by one from its 
dangling retreat. 
The life of the black hornet, or wasp, may be 
briefly summed up. The females survive the win- 
ter, and in spring build a tiny comb of papery 
material composed of saliva and timber scraped 
from old gray boards and fence rails. In each 
cell of the comb an egg is laid, which soon hatches 
into a minute white grub, the sides of the cells 
being continued to accommodate its growth, the 
comb being gradually inclosed in the paper cover- 
ing and enlarged as the nest cells are increased. 
The grub at maturity incases itself within its 
cell by closing the orifice with a silken veil, and 
soon turns to a chrysalis, and in a few days 
emerges as a perfect wasp. Several broods are 
reared in a season, the combs being extended in 
