i 5 4 THE ROLL OF THE SEASONS 



taken straight back to the nest where the grubs await 

 their food. Moreover, the wasp's opportunities of 

 getting fruit or sugar in the early summer are 

 slight. 



The labours of the queen are soon lightened by the 

 birth of the first brood. The new daughters stay at 

 home for a day or two, and probably pulp the food 

 that the mother still brings in from outside. Cer- 

 tainly there seems to be a division of labour of this 

 kind when the wasps of the year are carrying on 

 the whole work of the city except the queen's func- 

 tion of laying eggs. The little paper ball that the 

 queen built all by herself has been for the most part 

 pulled apart and reconstructed. The outer wrapping 

 of the nest is parti-coloured in streaks according to 

 the individual taste of succeeding artisans. Here is 

 a strip of green made from the living bark, there a 

 dirty buff from the decayed heart of a willow, be- 

 tween them some whiter paper that a more ambitious 

 wasp has chewed with greater difficulty from sound 

 timber. We remember a nest that was mostly 

 mahogany colour, being made from a piece of cedar 

 that the wasps found in right condition for their 

 handicraft. 



The need for an enlargement having arisen, some 

 thoughtful wasp has turned navvy, and the others, 

 seeing what a good work had been begun, have 

 followed its lead. Then the paper-makers are the 

 busiest section till the globe has been enlarged to fit 

 the increased cavity. Very rarely, usually after 

 extreme persecution, wasps leaving the nest may be 

 seen carrying grubs of their own kind. No operation 

 would be better worth watching than one of these 



