INSTINCT AND INTELLIGENCE. 



of old wood to which they can find access, a quantity of the 

 woody fibre, which they collect into a heap and moisten with 



Fig. 25. Underground Wasp's nest. 



viscid liquid secreted in their mouths. They knead this with 

 their jaws until they form it into a mass of pulp similar pre- 

 cisely to that which the paper-maker produces from the vegetable 

 fibre of linen or cotton rags. "With this pulp, they fly off to their 

 nests, where, by walking backwards and forwards, they spread it 

 out into leaves of the necessary thinness by means of their jaws, 

 tongue, and legs. This operation is repeated many times, until 

 at length as much of the paper is produced as is sufficient to 

 roof in the nest. The thinness of this wasp-made paper is about 

 the same as that of the book now in the hands of the reader. 



The coating of the nest consists of fifteen or sixteen leaves of 

 this paper placed one outside the other, with small spaces between 

 them as shown in the figure, so that if rain should chance to 

 penetrate one or two of them, its progress may be arrested by the 

 inner ones. 



92, The interior of the nest consists of from twelve to fifteen 

 horizontal layers of comb placed one over the other so as to form 

 154 



