SOME FACTS ABOUT WASPS AND BEES. 



3*9 



and exhibited the various means by which the young had escaped 

 when the proper time had arrived for them to do so. In some 

 cases the thin paper cap was perforated ; in others it had been 

 lifted as a cover ; while, finally, in some it was practically gone 

 altogether. Paper hornets will, as every one knows who has 

 ever had any experience of the kind, sally forth in numbers and 

 protect their nest by winged attacks en masse and in loose order, 

 their stings being no trifling matter in many cases. I have before 



FIG. 2. NEST OF THE PAPER HORNET ( Vespa maculata}. One side cut away to show interior. 

 Collected and photographed by Dr. Shufeldt. 



me another very pretty nest of this kind found in the same local- 

 ity, but built by a different species. It is no bigger than an ordi- 

 nary peg top, being attached to the twig of a blackberry vine by 

 its large end, the apex, looking directly downward, being occu- 

 pied by a single circular aperture leading to the interior. Ex- 

 ternally this little structure is very smooth, and it contains but 

 one small disk, composed of but seven or eight cells. 



Other communities of social hornets build their vespiaries in 



