A MASON-WASP 



disposition. She nearly always builds a lonely nest, and 

 unlike many Wasps and Bees, she seldom founds her 

 family at the spot where she was reared herself. She is 

 often found in our southern towns, but on the whole she 

 prefers the peasant's smoky house to the townsman's 

 white villa. Nowhere have I seen her so plentiful as in 

 my village, with its tumble-down cottages burnt yellow 

 by the sun. 



It is obvious that this Wasp, when she so often chooses 

 the chimney as her abode, is not seeking her own comfort : 

 the site means work, and dangerous work. She seeks the 

 welfare of her family. This family, then, must require 

 a high temperature, such as other Wasps and Bees do not 

 need. 



I have seen a Pelopaeus nest in the engine-room of 

 a silk-factory, fixed to the ceiling just above the huge 

 boiler. At this spot the thermometer marked 120 

 degrees all through the year, except at night and on holi- 

 days. 



In a country distillery I have found many nests, fixed 

 on anything that came to hand, even a pile of account- 

 books. The temperature of one of these, quite close to 

 the still, was 113 degrees. It is plain that this 

 Wasp cheerfully endures a degree of heat that makes the 

 oily palm-tree sprout. 



A boiler or a furnace she regards as the ideal home, but 



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