HYMENOPTERA. 663 



who has no respect for the rights of yellow-jackets has be- 

 fore him a lesson which he will have no difficulty in learning, 

 if he takes the pains to disturb one of the oval, gray paper 

 nests commonly found hanging from the eaves of buildings. 

 The yellow and black mass of seething and buzzing ven- 

 geance that can pour out of the hole in the bottom of one 

 of these nests seems almost as wonderful as the miraculous 

 multiplication of the loaves and fishes. And these insects 

 do not threaten more than they can perform : their painful 



FIG. 792. Nest of Vespa. 



stings are so well known, that neither man nor beast tres- 

 passes willingly on their domains. Their nest is a real palace 

 of papier-mache 1 . It consists of several horizontal combs 

 suspended one above the other, with commodious galleries 

 between, and all enveloped by an elaborate covering made 

 of many folds of water-proof paper. The yellow-jackets are 

 clever and original artisans. Once we chanced, most inad- 

 vertently, to lift a board and thereby tear off the whole roof 

 of a nest ; naturally we beat a hasty retreat. On returning 

 to the spot a few days later we found the nest neatly and 

 thoroughly covered with a sloping water-proof roofing of 



