NATURALIST'S CABINET. 



Description Food Enemies to bees. 



near towns, and forms its nest in hollow places 

 in trees, 8cc. applying to this work the down of 

 the garden campion, and some other woolly 

 plants. The Rev. Mr. White says, that " it is 

 very pleasant to see with what address this insect 

 strips off the down, running from the top to the 

 bottom of a branch, and shaving it bare with all 

 the dexterity of a hoop-shaver. When it has 

 got a vast bundle, almost as large as itself, it flies 

 away, holding it secure between its skin and fore 

 legs''* 



THE WASP. 



OF this animal there are no less than twenty- 

 eight species. The common wasp is longer in 

 proportion to its bulk than the bee ; the body is 

 of a golden yellow, having triangular spots down 

 the back part, and black ones on each side ; the 

 jaws are notched, and with these it is enabled to 

 cut off and carry away any substance, however 

 hard. 



Wasps devour fruit, meat, sweets (particularly 

 the honey of bees, though incapable of gathering 

 honey of its own) and are engaged in continual 

 warfare with almost every other species of fly; 

 they are the inveterate enemies of the common 

 bee, great numbers of which annually become 

 the victims of their rapacity. Every community 

 of wasps, as among bees, is composed of femalea 



