THE FIRST PAPER-MAKER 161 



minutes together without seeing at least two or 

 three wasps busily engaged in gathering its nectar. 

 Herb and insect have learned to accommodate 

 one another ; by mutual adaptation they have 

 fitted each part of each to each in the most 

 marvellous detail. 



It is a peculiarity of the wasps, however, that 

 they are fairly omnivorous. Most of their cousins, 

 like the bees, have mouths adapted to honey-suck- 

 ing alone mere tubes or suction-pumps, incapable 

 of biting through any hard substance. But the 

 wasp, with her hungry large family to keep, has 

 to be less particular about the nature of her food ; 

 she cannot afford to depend upon honey only. 

 Not only does she suck nectar ; she bites holes in 

 fruits, as we know to our cost in our gardens, to 

 dig out the pulp ; and she has a perfect genius for 

 selecting the softest and sunniest side of an apricot 

 or a nectarine. She is not a strict vegetarian, either ; 

 all is fish that comes to her net : she will help her- 

 self to meat or any other animal matter she can 

 find, and will feed her uncomplaining grubs upon 

 raw and bleeding tissue. Nay, more, she catches 

 flies and other insects as they flit in the sunshine, 

 saws off their wings with her sharp jaws, and carries 

 them off alive, but incapable of struggling, to feed 

 her own ever-increasing household. 



By-and-by the first grubs, which covered them- 

 selves in with silk in order to undergo their pupa 

 or chrysalis stage, develop their wings under cover, 

 and emerge from their cases as full-grown workers. 

 These workers, whose portrait you will find on a 



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