WASPS' NESTS. 333 



ments of insects are, there is no part of their 

 economy more extraordinary than the infinite 

 variety of forms and materials to which they have 

 recourse in the fabrication of their nests ; and, as 

 far as we can comprehend, their expediency for the 

 various purposes required. Among those, with 

 which I am acquainted, none pleases me more than 

 that of a solitary wasp (vespa campanaria), which 

 occasionally visits us here. It is not a common 

 insect ; but I have met with their nests. One was 

 fixed beneath a piece of oak bark, placed in a pile ; 

 another was pendant in the hollow of a bank of 

 earth. The materials, which composed these 

 abodes, seemed to be particles scraped or torn from 

 the dry parts of the willow, sallow, or some such 

 soft wood, and cemented again by animal glue, 

 very similar in texture to that provided by the 

 common wasp, which makes great use of the half 

 decayed wood of the ash, and will penetrate 

 through crevices in the bark, to abrade away the 

 dry wood beneath. They seem to have but small 

 families, ten or twelve cells only being provided. 

 These are situate at the bottom of an eggshaped 

 cup, contracted at the lower end, where an orifice is 

 left for the entrance. This again is covered, in the 

 part where the cells are placed, by a loose hood, 

 or shed, extending about half way down the inner 

 one. The pendant situation of the whole, and this 

 external hood, round which the air has a free circu- 



