276 NATURAL HISTORY. 
species of the Social Wasps, the best known of which, as 
the common Wasp, build their nests of a stout brown 
paper, which they manufacture from bits of wood and 
bark. Like the paper-maker among men, they reduce 
their material to a pulp, and then spread it out thinly, 
which, drying speedily, becomes firm paper. In Fig. 
214 you see the arrangement of the nest of the Social 
Fig. 214. 
Wasps. Each floor of cells hangs from the floor above 
it by rods. At @ @ is the outer wall, made of many lay- 
ers of brown paper; at 4 and ¢ are five terraces of cells 
for the neuter Wasps; and at d and e are 
three rows of larger cells for the males 
and females. In Fig.215 is a representa- 
| tion of a portion of one of these terraces, 
’ with its rod. 
472. The family Formicide, or Ants, 
are placed in a different order from the 
