478 HOMES WITHOUT HANDS. 



are slender and delicate, their grasping power is very great. Two > 

 of mv specimens had grasped each other's limbs with such force 

 that they could not be separated without damaging the insect, 

 and it was not until the rigid joints were softened with moisture, 

 and then with the aid of a magnifier, that I succeeded in disen- 

 gaging the insects. 



The smaller specimens are not so black as the larger, nor are 

 their jaws so proportionately large, but they are still formidable 

 insects, if not from their individual size, yet from their collective 

 numbers and their reckless courage, which urges them to attack 

 any thing that opposes them. Fire will frighten almost any 

 creature, but it has no terrors for the Driver Ant, which will dash 

 at a glowing coal, fix its jaws in the burning mass, and straight- 

 way shrivel up in the heat. 



In the collection of the British Museum may be seen a veiy re- 

 markable nest, which is made by some species of wasp at present 

 unknown. 



The material of which it is formed is mud or clay, which is 

 worked by the insect until it. has attained a wonderful tenacity 

 and strength, and is rendered so plastic as to be worked nearly as 

 neatly as the waxen bee-cell. It is of rather a large size, measur- 

 ing about thirteen inches in length by nine in width, and filled 

 with combs. Unfortunately, in its passage to this country it was 

 broken and much damaged, but the fragments were collected and 

 skillfully put together by Mr. F. Smith, who has succeeded in re- 

 storing the nest to its original shape, with the exception of an 

 aperture through which the interior of the nest may be seen. 



The accident was in so far an advantage that it gave oppor- 

 tunities of studying the construction of a nest which is at present 

 unique, and which the officers of the Museum might be chary 

 of cutting open, particularly as its materials are so brittle. The 

 walls of the nest are remarkably hard and solid, but extremely 

 variable in thickness, some parts being nearly three times as 

 strong as others. The upper portions of the nest are the thick- 

 est, the reason for which is evident on inspecting the specimen. 



The nest was found in a Guianian forest, near the Kiver Ber- 

 bice, suspended to a branch, which passed through a hole in the 

 solid wall of the nest. In the actual specimen the branch is want- 

 ing ; but in the illustration it has been restored, in order to show 

 the manner in which the winged artificers suspended their won- 



