72 THE RING OF NATURE 



Other good large solitary wasps of true wasp 

 livery will be found burrowing in decayed trees, 

 a habit that earns for them the name of carpenter 

 wasps ; other smaller ones make neater and more 

 workmanlike holes in sound larch palings or other 

 woodwork. None of them has been studied in 

 this country as they and their associates have 

 been in France by M. Fabre and others, or in 

 America by Mr. and Mrs. Peckham. In this 

 small sub-department of natural history, then, 

 there is a field for entertaining observation not 

 merely through one summer, but through many 

 years. Here is research work worthy of the 

 highest science and within the capacity of the 

 quite uninstructed but painstaking boy ; food for 

 the entertainment of an afternoon or for the 

 absorbing attention of a lifetime. 



