154 FLASHLIGHTS ON NATURE 



acquired both organs fit for her, and dexterity in 

 employing them. 



The first point she has now to consider is the 

 placing of her nest. In this she is guided partly 

 by that inherited experience which we describe 

 (somewhat foolishly) as instinct, and partly by her 

 own individual intelligence. Different races of 

 wasps prefer different situations : some of them 

 burrow underground ; others hang their houses 

 in the branches of trees ; others' again seek some 

 dry and hollow trunk. But personal taste has 

 also much to do with it ; thus the common 

 English wasp sometimes builds underground, but 

 sometimes takes advantage of the dry space under 

 the eaves of houses. All that is needed is shelter, 

 especially from rain ; wherever the wasp finds a 

 site that pleases her, there she founds her family. 



Let us imagine, then, that she has lighted on a 

 suitable hole in the earth a hole produced by 

 accident, or by some dead mole or mouse or 

 rabbit ; she occupies it at once, and begins by 

 her own labour to enlarge and adapt it to her 

 private requirements. As soon as she has made 

 it as big as she thinks necessary, she sets to work 

 to collect materials for building the city. She 

 flies abroad, and with her saw-like jaws rasps 

 away at a paling or other exposed piece of wood 

 till she has collected a fair amount of finely 

 powdered fibrous matter. I will show you Jater 

 on the admirable machine with which she scrapes 

 and pulps the fragments of wood-fibre. Having 

 gathered a sufficient quantity of this raw material 



