COU^TRT 137 



small hole in the ground leads along a gallery, sometimes 

 dug by the little architects, sometimes the old working 

 of a mouse or a mole, to a chamber often twelve to 

 eighteen inches in diameter. This cavity is lined with 

 layers of soft grey paper, made by the wasps out of 

 wood-fibres which they have scraped with their strong 

 jaws. In this space the combs, which have cells only on 

 the lower side, are placed in horizontal layers. The 

 cells, which are of wood like the lining on the walls, are 

 used simply for the eggs and young, for the common 

 wasp stores no honey. The combs are supported by 

 diminutive pillars, of which there are sometimes fifty 

 between the wider combs in the middle of the nest. 

 The whole may in a large colony contain as many as 

 15,000 cells, and there are usually three broods in a 

 season. Well is it indeed for us that winter comes to 

 stop the increase of these swarms of brigands. 



Of the unnumbered hosts of insects whose busy life, 

 or beauty, whose inarticulate voices, or mere presence 

 even, brightened the long hours of summer sunshine, 

 myriads will perish at the approach of winter; not so 

 much perhaps at the touch of frost, as having reached 

 the fulness of their days. No less vast are the hosts 

 that lie concealed as egg or grub or chrysalis till 

 awakened by the coming of the spring. 



Of insects that have reached the perfect state but few 

 live through the winter. A few gnats remain, hiding in 

 dark holes and corners, from which bright days will 

 tempt them even at the season of Christmas. Many 

 beetles, too, survive; some burrowing deep into .the 



