92 . COURAGE OF WASPS. 



not only attack, in a body, more prosperous communities, but, 

 like highway robbers, will lie in wait, by parties of three arid 

 four, for any unfortunate single Bee returning alone and laden 

 to its hive. " One seizes it by a leg, another by a wing, or 

 perhaps there are two on each side confining or pulling its 

 limbs, while they maul and pummel its chest, and bite its 

 head. This maltreatment obliges it to disgorge its honey, 

 which the robbers eagerly lap till they are satisfied, and then 

 let their prisoner go." 1 



The Wasps are above such mean and cowardly proceedings : 

 we never heard, at least, of their turning, under any extremity, 

 robbers of their kind; and therefore, socially considered, 

 they are no robbers at all. Then, for courage, a Wasp is 

 scarcely to be equalled. A single one will venture, it is said, 

 to face a whole hive of Bees after a booty of honey, and is, in 

 fair combat, a match for any three inhabitants of the apiary. 

 The same character of boldness accompanies, and, in our 

 opinion, helps to redeem the depredations of the Wasp as 

 exercised upon ourselves. 



Both Reaumur and the younger Huber studied the domes:ic 

 economy of the common Wasp, as they did that of Bees, by 

 means of glass hives. In this they were greatly assisted by the 

 extreme affection of Wasps for their young; for though the 

 nest be carried off, cut in various directions, and exposed to 

 the light, they never abandon it, or relax in their attention to 

 their progeny. No less admirable than the affection thus 

 testified is their ingenuity displayed, under the same circum- 

 stances of distress, in repairing the breaches of their habitation, 

 removing its ruins, and fixing it to the glass by columns of 

 support. Operations such as these, suggested by, and adapted 

 to, unlocked for exigencies, savour certainly of something 

 beyond the limited powers of instinct ; and an anecdote related 

 of the Wasp, by Dr. Darwin, exemplifies yet more strongly 



1 Kirby and Spence. 



