Social- Wasps. . 



93 



and Kirby and Spence, with respect to the materials em- 

 ployed by the hornet for building. The latter say that it 

 employs decayed wood ; the former, that it uses the bark of 

 the ash-tree, but takes less pains to split it into fine fibres 

 than wasps do ; not, however, because it is destitute of skill ; 

 for in constructing the suspensory columns of the platforms, 

 a paste is prepared little inferior to that made by wasps. 

 We cannot, from our own observations, decide which of the 

 above statements is correct, as we have only once seen a 

 hornet procuring materials, at Compton-Bassett, in Wiltshire ; 

 and in that case it gnawed the inner bark of an elm which 

 had been felled for several months, and was, consequently, 

 dry and tough. Such materials as this would account for the 

 common yellowish-brown colour of a hornet's nest. (J. E.) 



[The accompanying figure represents a completed hornet's 

 nest as it appears when suspended from a beam. Hornets 



