THK VVASP. SID 



Wasps are ever fond of making their nests in the neighbourhood 

 of bees, merely to have an opportunity of robbing their hives, 

 and feasting on the spoil. Yet the bees are not found always 

 patiently submissive to their tyranny, but fierce battles are 

 sometimes seen to ensue, in which the bees make up by conduct 

 and numbers what they want in personal prowess. When there 

 is no honey to be had, they seek for the best and sweetest fruits, 

 and they are never mistaken in their choice. From the garden 

 they Hy to the city, to the grocer's shops, and butcher's sham- 

 bles. They will sometimes carry off bits of flesh half as big as 

 themselves, with which they fly to their nests for the nourish- 

 Jient of their brood. Those who cannot drive them away, lay 

 for them a piece of ox's liver, which being without fibres, they 

 prefer to other flesh ; and whenever they are found, all other 

 flies are seen to desert the place immediately. Such is the 

 dread with which these little animals impress all the rest of the 

 insect tribes, which they seize and devour without mercy, that 

 they vanish at their approach. Wherever they fly, like the eagle 

 or the falcon, they form a desert in the air round them. In 

 this manner the summer is passed in plundering the neighbour- 

 hood, and rearing up their young : every day adds to their num- 

 bers ; and from their strength, agility, and indiscriminate appe- 

 tite for every kind of provision, were they as long-lived as the 

 bee, they would soon swarm upon the face of nature, and be- 

 come the most noxious plague of man ; but providentially their 

 lives are measured to their mischief, and they live but a single 

 season. 



While the summer heats continue, they are bold, voracious, 

 and enterprising; but as the sun withdraws, it seems to rob them 

 of their courage and activity. In proportion as the cold in- 

 creases, they are seen to become more domestic ; they seldom 

 leave the nest ; they make but short adventures from home, 

 they flutter about in the noon-day heats, and soon after return 

 chilled and feeble. 



As their calamities increase, new passions soon begin to take 

 place ; the care for posterity no longer continues ; and as the 

 parents are no longer able to provide their growing progeny a 

 supply, they take the barbarous resolution of sacrificing them 

 all to the necessity of the times. In this manner, like a garri- 

 son upon short allowance, all the useless hands are destroyed ; 



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