_ 198 NATURAL HISTORY OF WASPS. 
comb, and a sign of coming political disturbance. 
But in a wasp’s nest the most varied building ope- 
rations are going on simultaneously. The case has 
to be made, and the foundations—reversing the 
application of this term—constantly attended to. 
And as all has to be done in a few weeks, and time 
is very valuable, what presses most must be done 
first ; and so the cells are merely sketched out in the 
first instance, but not built up till opportunity allows. 
And the social life of the insects corresponds. The 
bee-hive has its type, political excitement and all, in 
a flourishing manufacturmg town; the wasps’ nest 
finds its parallel on the outskirts of civilization, in 
the ready and versatile industry of those who live 
with their lives in their hands. 
In many respects wasps are more easily watched 
in their proceedings than bees. With a little care 
and patience we may trace the exact process by 
which the outer case of a wasp’s nest is built. But 
the internal economy is most jealously shut out 
from observation; we cannot study this as accurately 
as in a beehive. We may watch marked wasps come 
in and go out again, but we cannot tell what is 
going on inside all the while. For the first effort of 
the swarm is to surround all their work, and exclude 
all curious eyes, by a thick covermg of paper. I 
have never seen, after watching two active swarms 
for a long time, the actual process of building a cell ; 
but Mr. Newport * was more fortunate in the obser- 
vation of his hornets, and describes the process as 
identical with that by which the outer case is made. 
The materials are laid on at the edge of the cell-wall, 
* Op. cit. ‘Trans. Entom. Soc.,’ Vol. ITI, p. 189. 
