92 OUT OF DOORS. 



the circumference. The whole nest, containing some 

 six or seven layers of comb, is enveloped in a kind of 

 outer case, composed of the same paper-like substance 

 as the cells, but of a much coarser consistence, and laid 



* 



on in large loose flakes, in which the semicircular sweep 

 of the wasp's head leaves its marks. 



I have seen a very curious little wasp's nest taken 

 from the neighbourhood of Balaclava during the 

 Crimean war. All the stray wood was picked up and 

 used for fuel, so that the wasps were deprived of their 

 ordinary material. They soon, however, found a simple 

 substitute, and made their nests of the blue and white 

 cartridge-paper that is strewn in such quantities on a 

 battle-field. 



The wasp, although it makes no honey, is very fond 

 of eating it, and is always allured towards any sweet 

 substances with the same instinctive force which attracts 

 the school-boy to the toffee-shop, or the infant to the 

 sugar-basin. Eipe fruits are a great banquet to this 

 marauder, who prefers the peaches, plums, and apricots 

 to any other diet, and always chooses the juiciest and 

 best flavoured upon the trees. But it is carnivorous 

 also, and is a sad enemy to flies, to whom it is as deadly 

 a foe as a winged spider would be. But here a poetical 

 justice often overtakes the spoiler, for the hornet, shaped 

 like himself, but just as much bigger, stronger, and 

 fiercer as a tiger excels a leopard in these qualities, is 

 particularly fond of wasps, and may be seen prowling 

 about their haunts, sweeping upon them with a rush 



