THE GOLD-BANDED PAPER-MAKER 155 



accept them and roll them up carefully and 

 knead the little ball vigorously and feed it to 

 the larvae. 



On warm days Mother Paper-maker was 

 very active. Between her building and the 

 feeding of her young she was busy indeed. 

 When she was engaged in enlarging the home 

 for her growing family she would make a trip 

 for wood pulp and return again in two or three 

 minutes. After each load was duly placed in 

 the wall she would tarry for a minute or two 

 to clean herself carefully from any clinging 

 dust, and be off again. As the season advanced 

 the number of larvae increased, and made a 

 corresponding demand upon their busy 

 mother for food. By this time several had 

 spun their cocoons, but others were hatching 

 all the time, and more eggs were being laid in 

 the newly built cells. 



On the morning of July 16, the Naturalist 

 visited the nest as usual. There had been an 

 unusually heavy rain the night before, lasting 

 a good part of the night. When he peeked 

 under the hive cover he was greatly disturbed 

 to find that the nest had fallen to the ground, 

 and that the mother wasp was not to be seen. 

 He carefully replaced the nest, fastening it 



