OF NATURAL HISTORY. S93 



expofed to the weather, and deprived of nourlfhment, every- 

 one of them unavoidably perifhes. This devaftation is not 

 hke that of the honey-bees, confined to the male-worms. 

 Here no worm, of whatever denomination or fex, efcapes the 

 general and undiftinguifhing maflacre. Befide expofing the 

 worms to. the weather, the wafps kill them with their fangs. 

 This fadt feems to be a violation of parental affection, one of 

 the ftrongefl: principles in animal nature. But the inten- 

 tions of Nature, though they may often elude our refearch- 

 es, are never wrong. What appears to us cruel and unnat- 

 ural in this inftiniStive devaftation committed annually by the 

 wafps, is perhaps an a6l of the greatefl mercy and compaffion. 

 "Wafps are not, like the honey-bees, endowed with the in- 

 ftintft of laying up a ftore of provifions for winter fubfiftencc. 

 If not prematurely deftroyed by their parents, the young 

 muft necefTarily die a more cruel and lingering death, occa- 

 fioned by hunger. Hence tiiis feemingly harlh conduct in 

 the oeconomy of wafps, inftead of affording an exception tq 

 the univerfal benevolence and wifdom of Nature, is, in reali- 

 ty, a merciful inftitution. Eefides, as the multiplication of 

 wafps is prodigious, and as they are a noxious race both to 

 man and other animals, and efpecially to many tribes of in- 

 fects, if their increafe were not checked by fuch a dreadful 

 carnage, their depredations, in a few years, would annihilate 

 other fpecies, break the chain of Nature, and even prove de- 

 ftructive to man and the larger animals. 



The fame inftin£live flaughter, and probably for the fame 

 reafons, is made by the hornets. Towards the end of 0(Slo- 

 her, all the worms and nymphs are dragged out of the nefj: 

 and killed. The neuters and males fall daily vi«Sl:ims to the 

 cold ; fo that, at the end of winter, a few fertile females on* 

 ly remain to continue the fpecies. 



According to the adopted plan, we fhall finifli this fubjei^ 

 with fome obfervations which m.ay have a tendency to re^on? 



