WASPS 



Social and Solitary 



Chapter I 



COMMUNAL LIFE 



" For where 's the state beneath the firmament 

 That doth excel the wasps' for government." 



" What is not good for the swarm is not good for the wasp. 



\ S the tendency of mankind to crowd into towns 

 JL \. grows stronger the joys of country life and the 

 workings of Nature are more and more excluded from 

 the daily experience of humanity. In a few the primal 

 love of the wild is too strong for suppression, and turning 

 from the hot and noisy streets they find it a refreshment 

 of spirit to meet our little brothers of earth and air in the 

 wider spaces of their own territory. 



We were walking through the woods one hot day in 

 the middle of August when our attention was attracted 

 by a stream of yellow-jackets issuing from the ground. 

 They came in such surprising numbers and looked so 



