THE BEE AND THE WASP'. 151 



particularly fond of dried nuts or shrivelled grain, he does 

 not consider it necessary to profess any extreme admiration 

 for the forethought of these creatures. The wasp is perfectly 

 capable of storing up honey for its winter use, did it see the 

 slightest occasion for doing so ; but the wasp is not a fool. 

 It knows perfectly well that its life is a short one ; that it 

 will die when the winter season approaches. Its instinct 

 doubtless teaches it that only a few of the autumn-born 

 females will survive to create new colonies in the spring, 

 and that as these females will pass the winter in a dormant 

 state in some snug recess beyond the reach of frost, there is 

 no occasion whatever to prepare stores of food for their use. 

 Did the wasp endeavour to emulate the bee, and store its 

 cells with honey, it would rightly be held up to derision as 

 an idiot, as the only creature who imitates the folly of man 

 in continuing to work until the last to pile up riches for 

 others to enjoy after its death. If it is admirable for the 

 bee, who lives through the winter, to collect for his use 

 during that time, it is no less admirable in the wasp, who 

 dies before the winter, to avoid the absurd and ridiculous 

 habit of collecting stores which he cannot profit by. 



In all other respects the wasp is the equal, if not the 

 superior, of the bee. The latter is content to establish its 

 home in any place that comes to hand. Even if man 

 provides a hive for it, the bee has not the sense to utilise it 

 until man takes the trouble to bring the habitation and to 

 shake the swarm into it. If the hive should not be forth- 

 coming the bees will establish themselves in a hollow tree, 

 in a chimney, in the roof of a house, or in any other place that 

 appears convenient, and then and there begin to build their 

 combs and prepare for the reception of brood and honey. The 



