- 266 NATURAL HISTORY OF WASPS. 
physiological problem was being worked out in the 
hedge, near Hassock’s Gate Station, and fortunately 
no little boys knew of it either. So the nest hung 
on safely, till it was clear that no further change was 
being made in it: and, then, I stopped all the aper- 
tures with cotton wool and cut the spray to which it 
was attached. When it was brought home and 
examined only two wasps were found in it. These 
were, to all appearance, common worker-wasps, even 
of less than the average size; but, on dissection, they 
were found to contain distinct eggs and traces of the 
ovaries, which were demonstrated with less difficulty 
than usual. 
The failure of the development of these larve, 
as of those which I have tried to nurse to maturity 
myself on several occasions, seems to have resulted 
from a state of things just the reverse of that under 
which large perfect females are reared, by the score, 
from eggs which in the earlier summer would have 
produced only common workers. They had scanty 
food and imperfect attendance; and so they pined, 
as little babies often pine and dwindle away under 
similar circumstances. 
Sometimes Nature, as it were, makes these experi- 
ments for us herself, and we have only to interpret the 
results. I have in my cabinet a large nest of V. 
britannica which was taken in the hot summer of 
1864. When it was first discovered, the swarm was 
so very strong in numbers that my sister, with all 
her skill and courage, declined to attempt its cap- 
ture. After not many days, however, it was found 
to have been entirely deserted. The singular mode 
of construction of the lower comb represented 
