The Mason-Wasps 



11 It is at the end of May that these 

 Wasps set to work; and one can see them 

 busily labouring during the whole of June. 

 Though their actual object is only to dig 

 in the sand a hole a few inches deep and not 

 much wider than their bodies, one might 

 suppose that they had another end in view; 

 for, to make this hole, they build on the out- 

 side a hollow tube, which has as its base 

 the circumference of the entrance to the 

 hole and which, after following a direction 

 perpendicular to the surface containing that 

 aperture, turns downwards. This tube be- 

 comes longer in proportion as the hole be- 

 comes deeper; it is built of the sand drawn 

 from the hole; it is fashioned in coarse 

 filigree, or a sort of guilloche. It is made 

 of big, granular, winding fillets, which do 

 not touch at all points. The gaps left in 

 between make it look as if it were artistic- 

 ally constructed, whereas it is only a sort of 

 scaffolding by means of which the mother's 

 tactics are rendered swifter and surer. 



" Though I knew these insects' two teeth 

 to be capital instruments, capable of break- 

 ing into very hard substances, the task which 

 they had to perform appeared to me rather 

 severe for them. The sand on which they 

 had to act was scarcely less hard than ordi- 

 38 



