230 DEPOPULATION OF THE NESTS. 



limbs and wings begin to stiffen ; their vital juices to grow 

 sluggish ; their bold spirits to grow tame ; their supplies, and 

 their energies to seek them, fail both together. The same indivi- 

 dual who, under the summer sun, would have fearlessly opposed 

 a whole host of Bees, now suffers a starveling Fly t^bnter her 

 habitation, and insult her weakness. When November comes, 

 the Wasp population is cut off as by a pestilence ; of those 

 abroad, some fall far from their habitation, others crawl back to 

 die ; while those at home, lately so busy in the works of build- 

 ing, repairing, or keeping in order, are now sluggishly inactive. 

 Even their ruling passion, their powerful affection for their 

 young, becomes extinguished with the torpor of other feelings, 

 or through an instinctive foresight that all are about to perish, 

 for the cradled occupants of the cells are neglected, and 

 allowed to die of want, without an effort to supply their crav- 

 ings. It is even said that, in the extremity of their misery 

 and despair, the old Wasps destroy and drag them from their 

 cells. In a little while the city of terraces becomes a city of 

 the dead ; its sole surviving dwellers, and they, happily buried 

 in torpor, are some two or three of the widowed females (such 

 as the one seen at work this morning), on whom depends the 

 perpetuation of the race. No sooner does the early spring 

 awake them, than (like her) they depart, each on her way, to 

 found another city. 



We are almost inclined to wonder why one, at least, of these 

 survivors (good housewives as they are) does not bustle about, 



