426 



AMERICAN FORESTRY 



FLORIDAN WASPS AND THEIR NESTS 



Fig. 7 Most people are familiar with what this picture shows ; 

 and as a photographic result it is a very good one. Note the 

 open, unused cells the closed ones contain larvae. Note, too, 

 the various poses of the owners of the establishment. 



alone, especially .such a "social wasp" as I show in my 

 Figure 7, and the same may be said of the white-faced 

 hornet here shown, in Figure 10. 



In .some respects, the habits of the wasps are like 

 those of certain bumble bees, while they construct the 

 well known, flat, gray paper nests for their young, 

 which are familiar to all observers living in the country. 

 These nests are often found even in very small city 

 gardens, should the insects happen to take a notion to 

 build there or, perhaps, under the roof of the kit- 

 chen porch or in the shadow of some convenient part of 

 the under side of the fence rail. They are peaceful 

 neighbors enough if left severely to themselves, but 

 very combative if interfered with to even a very slight 

 degree. 



These wasps construct their paper nests from wood- 

 pulp ; and it is quite likely that ages ago, when the human 

 race was in a far more primitive state than it is at present, 

 it gained its idea in paper manufacture from the social 

 wasps, which had the same habits then as now. Most 

 of these .social wasps obtain the material from which 

 they make their paper from the looser parts of the sur- 

 face of old, unpainted fence boards, rails, house-shingles 

 and so on, and it is formed int,o the necessary pulp by 

 being chewed up with their saliva as a mixer. 



But, as I say, one having the requisite knowledge might 

 readily write a book and a good-sized volume at that 

 on our wasps alone ; and to tell the truth, a great many 

 volumes have been published about them. So that the 

 owner of such a garden as is here described would find 

 it a matter of the greatest possible interest to obtain 

 some of these books, and compare the statements made 

 in them, and the cuts given, with the living insects and 



the structure of their nests as he meets with them on 

 his preserves in the summer time. It is very profitable 

 to compare such histories with the corresponding ones 

 as they refer to our many si)ecies of ants, bees and hor- 

 nets relatives of tlie wasps. The white-faced hornet, 

 shown in Figure 10, is the insect that builds the big paper 

 comnninity nest, with which we are all so familiar. 



It is truly wonderful how many birds will visit our 

 modest garden during the cour.se of a year; they will, 

 during the spring migration, be most in evidence from 

 early daylight till breakfast tiiue, and then again as eve- 

 ning comes on. When autunm approaches, the migra- 

 tion that takes place is equally interesting; but then, we'll 

 see more or fewer birds in our garden during all the 

 months that make up the seasons. In winter we may 

 look for various finches, sparrows, crossbills, hawks, 

 owls and not a few other species that come to us during 

 that time of the year. Should your garden be fortunately 

 situated with respect to seclusion and quiet, it is not un- 

 likely that a number of birds may nest within its j)re- 

 cincts. A lovely pair of Kingbirds may make their home 

 in your apple tree (Figure 11), or, should you understand 

 how to invite them with food and nesting-places, quite 

 a host will reward you as tenants and neighbors. Espec- 

 ially do I refer to the robins and the wrens, the blue- 

 birds and the summer warblers, and, indeed, not a few 

 other species. Occasionally some birds will nest in such 



BEAUTIFUL TREE BLOSSOMS 



Fig. 8 The way the ."Xsh-leaved Maple or Box Elder wake5 

 up early in April in the District of Columbia ; it may sfow 

 to be seventy feet high, flourishing best in swamp-lands aiul 

 along rivers and streams where the soil is rich. 



