The First Paper- Maker 155 



to begin manufacturing, she proceeds to work it 

 up with her various jaws and a secretion from 

 her mouth into a sort of coarse brown paper ; the 

 stickiness of the secretion gums the tiny fragments 

 t)f wood together into a thin layer. Then she lays 

 down the floor of her nest, and proceeds to raise 

 upon it a stout column or foot-stalk of papery 

 matter, sufticiently strong to support the lirst two 

 or three lavers of cells. She never builds on the 

 ground, but begins iier nest at tiie top of the 

 supporting colunni. The cells are exclusively in- 

 tended for the reception of eggs and the breeding 

 of grubs, not (as is the case with bees) for the 

 storing of honey. We nuist remember, however, 

 that the original use of all cells was that of rearing 

 the young ; the more advanced bees, who are the 

 civilised tvpe of tiieir kind, make more cells than 

 they need for strictly nursery purposes, and then 

 employ some of them as convenient honey jars. 

 The consequence is that beehives survive 1 intact 

 from season to season (unless killed off artificially), 

 while the less prudent w;isps die wholesale by 

 cityfuls at the end of each sununer. 



Having thus supplied a foundation for her topsy- 

 turvy city, our w;5sp-queen proceeds in due course 

 to build it. At the top of the original column, 

 or foot-stalk, she constructs her earliest cells, the 

 museries for her three hrst-born grubs. Tiiey are 

 not built upward, however, above the foot-st;ilk, 

 but downward, with the open mouth below, hang- 

 ing like a bell. Kach is short and shallow, about 

 a tenth of an inch in depth to begin with, and 



