. Boe NATURAL HISTORY OF WASPS. 
at her work. When the wasp had cut off a piece of 
meat she tried to fly away with it, but finding she 
could not fly, thought the piece was too large to 
carry, and cut it in half, and so she went on cutting 
the meat smaller and smaller, as long as the butcher 
would let her, attributing her inability to fly to the 
size of her burden, not to the mutilation of her 
wings. 
The private life of a wasp, as of a prime minister 
or the member for an inflammatory borough, is chiefly 
occupied with eating, sleeping, and moving from 
place to place. Like these dignitaries, the wasp is 
entirely spent in the public service. We have al- 
ready spoken of the eatmg and of the mode of flight ; 
a notice of the sleep will complete all that is to be 
said on this topic. 
All animals, even wasps, sometimes rest, if they 
do not sleep. Wasps may be seen lying out on the 
nest by day; but their position here indicates rather 
vigilance than rest. In the night they may be 
seen standing on the comb with their legs stretched 
out behind them, or they thrust themselves, head 
foremost, into empty cells. The torpid queen arches 
up the back of her abdomen, and folds her wings 
closely by herside. And there she stands for months, 
a picture of helplessness, her sleep only distinguish- 
able from the quiet of death by the regular feeble 
respiratory movements. Sometimes wasps prowl 
about, in or on the nest, at night; but the smaller 
wasps do not work at these hours, indeed their work 
is generally finished in the afternoon. Hornets,* 
* Smith. ‘Catalogue of British Aculeate Hymenoptera,’ p. 222. 
1858. Wood, ‘Homes without Hands,’ p. 438, 
