86 STRANGE DWELLINGS. 



upon his treasures. It is true that the Wasp is very fond of 

 ripe fruit, and that with an unfailing instinct it prefers the 

 choicest fruits, exactly when they are in their best condition, 

 gnawing holes in them, and spoiling them for the market. Still 

 it is more of a predaceous than a vegetable-feeding insect, and 

 kills so many flies that it relieves the gardener of other foes, 

 which, in the end, would be more injurious than itself, inas- 

 much as their larvae endanger not only the fruit but the very life 

 of the plant. It is a strangely bold insect, and has recourse to 

 singular methods of procuring food. In the farming depart- 

 ment at Walton Hall, I have seen the pigs lying in the warm 

 sunshine, the flies clustering thickly on their bodies, and the 

 Wasps pouncing on the flies and carrying them off. It was a 

 curious sight to watch the total indifference of the pigs, the 

 busy clustering of the flies, with which the hide was absolutely 

 blackened in some places, and then to see the yellow-bodied 

 Wasp, just clear the wall, dart into the dark mass, and retreat 

 again with a fly in its fatal grasp. On the average, one Wasp 

 arrived every ten seconds, so that the pigsty must have been a 

 well-known storehouse for these insects. 



As is well known to every boy who has participated in the 

 delight of taking a Wasp's nest, the habitation of the insect is 

 mostly under ground, and is a marvel of ingenious industry. 

 The shape is more or less globular, and the material of which 

 it is composed is very much like coarse brown paper, though 

 not so tough. If it be opened, a wonderful scene is disclosed ; 

 terrace upon terrace of hexagonal cells being arranged in regu- 

 lar rows, and enclosed in a shell of papery substance, some 

 half-an-inch in thickness, which is evidently intended to prevent 

 the earth from falling among the combs, as these cell- terraces 

 are called. 



We will now suppose ourselves to be present at the construc- 

 tion of the nest, and, Prospero-like, will see without being seen. 



In the early days of spring, a Wasp issues from the place 

 in which it has passed the winter, and anxiously surveys the 

 country. She does not fly fast nor high, but passes slowly and 

 carefully along, examining every earth-bank, and entering every 



