INSECTS AND VERMES. 471 



turns to some purpose in the business of nidification. 

 It is very pleasant to see with what address it strips 

 off the pubes, running from the top to the bottom of a 

 branch, and shaving it bare with all the dexterity of a 

 hoop shaver 11 . When it has got a vast bundle, almost 

 as large as itself, it flies away, holding it secure between 

 its chin and its fore legs. 



There is a remarkable hill on the downs" near Lewes 

 in Sussex, known by the name of Mount Carburn, which 

 overlooks that town, and affords a most engaging pros- 

 pect of all the country round, besides several views of 

 the sea. On the very summit of this exalted promon- 

 tory, and amidst the trenches of its Danish camp, there 

 haunts a species of wild bee, making its nest in the 

 chalky soil 12 . When people approach the place, these 

 insects begin to be alarmed, and, with a sharp and hos- 

 tile sound, dash and strike round the heads and faces of 

 intruders. I have been often interrupted myself while 

 contemplating the grandeur of the scenery around me, 

 and have thought myself in danger of being stung, 



WASPS, 



WASPS abound in woody wild districts far from neigh- 

 bourhoods ; they feed on flowers, and catch flies and 

 caterpillars to carry to their young. Wasps make their 

 nests with the raspings of sound timber ; hornets, with 

 what they gnaw from decayed: these particles of wood 

 are kneaded up with a mixture of saliva from their 

 bodies and moulded into combs. 



When there is no fruit in the gardens, wasps eat 

 flies, and suck the honey from flowers, from ivy blos- 

 soms, and umbellated plants : they carry off also flesh 

 from butchers' shambles 13 . 



11 I possess a specimen of the stem of the garden or rose campion, upon 

 which a bee was thus employed; but being scared away by my approach 

 left the cotton it had shaved off in a neatly rolled up parcel. RENNIE. 



13 Probably Bombus lapidarius. RENNIE. 



la In the year 1775 wasps abounded so prodigiously in this neighbour- 



