102 Insect Architecture. 



plished their object, at the suggestion of a bystander, by a 

 strap revolving upon an axis, at a cost of three shillings and 

 sixpence. Such is the difference between the workings of 

 human knowledge and experience, and those of animal instinct. 

 We proceed slowly and in the dark, but our course is not 

 bounded by a narrow line, for it seems difficult to say what 

 is the perfection of any art ; animals go clearly to a given 

 point but they can go no further. We may, however, learn 

 something from their perfect knowledge of what is within 

 their range. It is not improbable that if man had attended 

 in an earlier state of society to the labours of wasps, he 

 would have sooner known how to make paper. We are still 

 behind in our arts and sciences, because we have not always 

 been observers. If we had watched the operations of insects, 

 and the structure of insects in general," with more care, we 

 might have been far advanced in the knowledge of many arts 

 which are yet in their infancy, for nature has given us 

 abundance of patterns. We have learnt to perfect some 

 instruments of sound by examining the structure of the 

 human ear ; and the mechanism of an eye has suggested 

 some valuable improvements in achromatic glasses. 



Reaumur has given a very interesting account of the wasps 

 of Cayenne (Chartergus nidulans), which hang their nests in 

 trees.* Like the bird of Africa called the social grosbeak 

 (Loxia soda), they fabricate a perfect house, capable of con- 

 taining many hundreds of their community, and suspend it 

 on high out of the reach of attack. But the Cayenne wasp 

 is a more expert artist than the bird. He is a pasteboard- 

 maker ; and the card with which he forms the exterior 

 covering of his abode is so smooth, so strong, so uniform in 

 its texture, and so white, that the most skilful manufacturer 

 of this substance might be proud of the work. It takes ink 

 admirably. 



The nest of the pasteboard-making wasp is impervious to 

 water. It hangs upon the branch of a tree, as represented 

 in the engraving ; and those rain-drops which penetrate 

 through the leaves never rest upon its hard and polished 



* Me'moires sur les Insectes, torn. vi.. mem. vii. See also Bonnet vol. ix. 



