A MASON- WASP 51 



where have I seen her so plentiful as in my village, with its 

 tumble-down cottages burnt yellow by the sun. 



It is obvious that this Wasp, when she so often chooses 

 the chimney as her abode, is not seeking her own comfort : 

 the site means work, and dangerous work. She seeks the 

 welfare of her family. This family, then, must require a 

 high temperature, such as other Wasps and Bees do not 

 need. 



I have seen a Pelopaeus nest in the engine-room of a silk- 

 factory, fixed to the ceiling just above the huge boiler. At 

 this spot the thermometer marked 120 all through the year, 

 except at night and on holidays. 



In a country distillery I have found many nests, fixed on 

 anything that came to hand, even a pile of account-books. 

 The temperature of one of these, quite close to the still, was 

 113. It is plain that this Wasp cheerfully endures a degree 

 of heat that makes the oily palm-tree sprout. 



A boiler or a furnace she regards as the ideal home, but 

 she is quite willing to content herself in any snug corner : a 

 conservatory, a kitchen-ceiling, the recess of a closed window, 

 the wall of a cottage bedroom. As to the foundation on 

 which she fixes her nest, she is entirely indifferent. As a 

 rule she builds her groups of cells on stonework or timber ; 

 but at various times I have seen nests inside a gourd, in a 

 fur cap, in the hollow of a brick, on the side of a bag of oats, 

 and in a piece of lead tubing. 



Once I saw something more remarkable still, in a farm 

 near Avignon. In a large room with a very wide fireplace the 

 soup for the farm-hands and the food for the cattle simmered 

 in a row of pots. The labourers used to come in from the 

 fields to this room, and devour their meal with the .silent 

 haste that comes from a keen appetite. To enjoy this half- 

 hour comfortably they would take off their hats and smocks, 

 and hang them on pegs. Short though this meal was, it 

 was long enough to allow the Wasps to take possession of 

 their garments. The inside of a straw hat was recognised 



