60 CONVERSATIONS ON 



water would run down a slanting surface? 

 But I cannot believe that it is so lazy ; for, 

 though it does not cover up the whole house 

 in a paper shell, yet it does what no other 

 wasp does, it covers its nest with a complete 

 coat of shining, water-proof varnish, to pre- 

 vent the rain from soaking into the cells. 

 And putting on this varnish, I can tell 

 you, is no trifling work. It forms a pretty 

 large part of the labour of the whole swarm 

 belonging to the nest ; and sometimes you 

 may see some of them at work for hours at a 

 time, spreading it on with their tongues. No, 

 my lads, he who wants an example of lazi- 

 ness, will not find it among the wasps. 



" But let us come back to the paper. Hor- 

 nets make paper for their nests much in the 

 same manner as the wasps do, only it is 

 coarser. There is, however, one kind of wasp 

 which makes a sort of paper more curious 

 than this which you have found. It is not a 

 wasp found in this country at all. It is the 

 Cayenne wasp, and so smooth, strong, and 

 white is the outside of his nest that it appears 

 like a card, and he is for that reason some- 

 times called the card-maker wasp. He hangs 

 his nest on the branch of a tree, and it is so 



