PREFACE. 
Wasps have been my holiday companions for many 
years; and wasps and wasps’ nests have occupied 
much of the time which was forbidden to more 
serious employments. Beginnmg with an inquiry 
into the nature of wasp-paper, one question has led 
on to another, till the detached observations have 
insensibly grown into a continuous Natural History. 
I feel that I may point with entire satisfaction to 
the figures of the several species, of the excellency 
and accuracy of which Mr. Robinson’s name is a gua- 
rantee to all Entomologists. And of the beautiful 
drawings of the nests, by my wife’s pencil, I am sure 
that there can be but one opinion, in accordance with 
my own. The wood-engravings and graphotypes 
want the perfect finish which can only be given by a 
practised hand, but 1 must plead that they convey 
my meaning more exactly than an artist working at 
a distance could have expressed. 
If the mode in which these observations have been 
collected has impressed itself too strongly on the 
book ; if it appear only too plainly that while pro- 
fessing to teach others I am but a learner myself; 
if the space devoted to the different topics seems to 
have been proportioned less to their actual import- 
ance than to the interest of the passing hour; and 
