WASP COLONIZATION. 219 



which she is likely to bring, soon, into his desolate inheritance. 

 In earnest, therefore, does she arouse her energies, and so 

 much to the purpose are they employed, that she succeeds, at 

 length, by dint of individual exertion, in founding a new city 

 and a new empire, which, peopled by her descendants, 

 becomes fully equal to those of whose ruins she was the sur- 

 vivor. Of a widowed princess, playing such a part, it would 

 be said that she was a pattern heroine ; and we must now 

 advance the claims of a widowed "Wasp to a title somewhat 

 similar, for the performance of a like extraordinary achieve- 

 ment. 



It is commonly known, we believe, that the race of Wasps, 

 in general, 



" Falls as the leaves do, and dies in October." 



Such, in fact, is the case with the numerous herd of working, 

 or, as we generally call them, thieving Wasps, with the males 

 (a quiet stay-at-home class with which we have little personal 

 acquaintance), and with a portion of the females ; but of the 

 latter, which are several times the size of the others, a few 

 winter survivors are always left in every nest. These (of 

 which our bulky visitant to the mouse-hole was one) after a 

 season of torpidity, awake in early spring ; when each taking 

 her own separate beat, chooses a favourable site for a new nest. 

 Of this she is the architect, and at this she works, wholly un- 

 assisted, until the eggs, which she takes care to deposit in its 

 first cells, famish her with assistants in the building and 



