A MASON-WASP 



Dabs of mud on the ceiling, on the walls, or on the 

 chimney-piece you could put up with; but it was a very 

 different matter when you found them on the linen and 

 the curtains. She had to beat the curtains every day 

 with a bamboo. And it was trouble thrown away. The 

 next morning the Wasps began building as busily as ever. 



II 



HER BUILDING 



I sympathised with the sorrows of that farm-cook, but 

 greatly regretted that I could not take her place. How 

 gladly I would have left the Wasps undisturbed, even if 

 they had covered all the furniture with mud! How I 

 longed to know what the fate of a nest would be, if 

 perched on the uncertain support of a coat or a curtain ! 

 The nest of the Mason-bee is made of hard mortar, which 

 surrounds the twig on which it is built, and becomes 

 firmly fixed to it; but the nest of the Pelopaeus Wasp is a 

 mere blob of mud, without cement or foundations. 



The materials of which it is made are nothing but wet 

 earth or dirt, picked up wherever the soil is damp 

 enough. The thin clay of a river-bank is very suitable, 

 but in my stony country streams are rare. I can, how- 

 ever, watch the builders at my leisure in my own garden, 

 when a thin trickle of water runs all day, as it does some- 



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