ARCHITECTURE. 189 
the chances of a single life, And as the nest grows, 
day by day, from this little fairy ball which might 
be hid in an egg-cup, to a great paper city, which the 
most determined naturalist will think twice before 
he attacks, the characteristics of the different species 
are impressed on the work. But, in the first in- 
stance, they are not very obvious. Leaving, there- 
fore, for the present, these specific distinctions, let 
us here trace, in the general description of a wasp’s 
nest, what all the species have in common. 
All the embryo nests of British wasps which I have 
seen were constructed on the same plan. There is 
in them all a thin pedicle springing from a triangular 
strap of paper, and there are successive coverings 
unconnected with each other, larger and more nu- 
merous as the work ‘increases in dimensions, and 
turned in below so as to close the nest at the bottom. 
When the nest has once been closed, henceforth all 
its further enlargement is made on the same plan. 
Though new combs are being constantly suspended, 
one from and under another, and the old ones are 
constantly being added to at their edges, yet the 
nest always maintains its original form. And all the 
while that the four primal cells are growing into 
eight or nine combs six inches or more, perhaps, in 
width, the nest cover still remains, throughout the 
process, round, and shapely, and perfectly closed; ex- 
cepting, of course, the single entrance hole. This pro- 
gressive enlargement involves a greater expenditure 
of labour and material than would have been required 
if the nest could have been laid out in the first in- 
stance on a largerscale. However, asitis absolutely 
necessary for the protection of the brood that the 
