AN EVENING WITH THE 

 HORNETS. 



LETTER No. XV. 



[1887. 



" O, it is excellent to have a giant's strength, 

 But it is tyrannous to use it like a giant." 



SHAKESPEARE. 



HE hornet, so called from its 

 antenna, or horns, is only a big 

 wasp. As Chang, the giant, is to 

 an ordinary Chinaman, so is Vespa crabro to 

 Vespa vulgaris. It builds in decaying hollow 

 trees, under the eaves of barns, &c. Its nest 

 is composed of coarser materials than that of 

 the wasp (Vespa vulgaris}. Gilbert White 

 says that wasps make their nests with the rasp- 

 ings of sound timber ; hornets with what they 

 gnaw from decayed bark. These particles of 

 wood are kneaded up with a mixture of saliva 

 from their bodies, and moulded into combs. 

 Re'aumur asserts that the hornet uses the bark 

 of living trees ; but Kirby and Spence say 



