138 NATURAL HISTORY OF WASPS. 
Above the cap this footstalk spreads out into a 
flattened triangular strap, by the edge of which it is 
fastened to a branch or a root. Below it is rounded 
into a cord which affords support to the rudiments 
of three or four little cells—I have always found 
four—not yet built up to their full height. Each 
of these already contains an egg, which, as the 
opening of the cell is directed downwards, is firmly 
glued in its place. This is the first beginning of the 
nest. Other cells are soon added, and the cap or 
cup covering and surrounding them is thickened by 
successive sheets of paper, which are laid on the 
outside and carried down from the footstalk to the 
bottom, overlapping the edges of the subjacent 
layers. Unnoticed by all but very inquiring eyes, 
against the grey background of a tree or a hedge- 
bank, these little fairy cups, about as big as a pigeon’s 
egg, may be found in turf-heaps, or under eaves or 
branches, or are turned up by the plough. They are 
the sole work of the queen wasp who, alone and 
without help, builds up the cells as the larve grow, 
and adds layer upon layer to the outer case, till the 
young brood, on whom the duties of enlarging the 
nest and tending the young are presently to devolve, 
come forth from their cells. 
These little nests may be found, at all seasons of 
the year, dusty and deserted, hanging from eaves 
or in out-houses. The queen-mother has fallen 
victim to one or other of the many dangers to 
which she is exposed, and the nest is abandoned. 
Caprice, too, seems sometimes to cause a wasp to 
desert a nest only just begun. But, in a few weeks, 
the safety of the structure is made independent of 
