WILDWOOD WAYS 



ers as well, making paper, doing con- 

 struction work, finding and bringing 

 honey and pollen and insects for the 

 food of the young grubs, and finally help- 

 ing them cut away the seals to the cells 

 and grasping the young hornets in her 

 mandibles and hauling them out of their 

 comb. 



These young hornets washed their 

 faces, cleaned their antennae, ate one 

 more free meal and set to work. There- 

 after the queen mother, having reared 

 her retinue, worked no more, but kept 

 the hive and produced worker eggs as 

 new cells were provided for them, now 

 and then perhaps feeding the children 

 when the workers were busiest. 



The first care of the new-born workers 



was to clean out the once used cells and 



to build new ones. But there was no 



room for new comb within the thin paper 



38 



