382 HOMES WITHOUT HANDS. 



specimen, I found that numbers of workers from the nest of V. 

 vulgaris, situated in the window above, had actually joined them- 

 selves to this nest, and had been working with its original inmates. 



" Not only had they been working in concert with them, but 

 they had been depositing eggs in the cells, as is proved by the 

 fact that numbers of young specimens of V. vulgaris were after- 

 ward bred from the combs contained in the nest of V. germanica. 

 I do not know whether you are aware that worker wasps have 

 the power of producing fertile eggs without contact with the 

 other sex, yet such I have proved over and over, again to be the 

 case. 



"Well, having again, as above stated, removed the covering 

 from this nest, I took away the lower comb and reduced the nest 

 somewhat in size, placing them in a box thirteen inches in length, 

 and arranged in such a way that the workers should necessarily 

 produce a vase, or rather a goblet-shaped nest. This they did, 

 and a splendid object it is, being, as before, the joint work of two 

 species of wasps, the one, V. vulgaris, using, as it invariably does, 

 decayed wood (such as is commonly called touchwood), and the 

 other, V. germanica, using sound wood, or sound vegetable fibre of 

 some kind, in the fabrication of its paper. Thus they gave to the 

 coverings of both these nests an extraordinary beauty, from the 

 variety and charming distribution of the colors with which they 

 were enriched. 



"As none of the workers from the nest of V. vulgaris were ever 

 found to attach themselves to the nest of V. germanica, which was 

 situated in a similar corner of the window below, I conclude that 

 they made 'no mistake as to the corner of the window in which 

 their nest was situated, but miscalculated the height of the win- 

 dow. As they entered the strange nest with food and building 

 material, they were not molested, but allowed to join peaceably in 

 the work of the nest. 



"Widely different would have been the case had they entered 

 it for the purpose of pillage ; for, though wasps will not interfere 

 with strange individuals of the same species, even when they 

 come with thievish intentions, they instantly seize all individuals 

 of a different species if their intentions appear suspicious. 



"I have since met with another instance of the kind. 



"Two nests were situated almost close together, in a drain at 

 Colethorpe Park, one belonging to V. vulgaris, and the other hav- 

 ing been originally the property of V. germanica. It would, how- 



