82 JdURNAL New York Ent. Soc. [Voi. ii. 



form of an inverted cone, the envelope being composed of many 

 successive slightly separated layers, and the nests which are 

 constructed in the opon air having usually only one entrance, 

 somewhere near the lower, jiointed extremity of the envelope. 



Nests of recent origin are found of only one and one-lialf 

 inches entire diameter. It is probable that in enlarging such a 

 nest, as the colonv increases, this envelope must be removed and 

 reconstructed of continually increasing diameter, until the limit is 

 reached, aiui it may be that the same paper is worked over a num- 

 ber of times. 



I have in my collection a nest of the yellow-jacket one anil 

 one-half inches in diameter, and about two inches in length, with 

 one very irregular original lonil), and a second incipient cond) 

 supported underneath by a slender pedicel. The nest is furnishetl 

 with three successive concentric sheets of envelope. The inner- 

 most of these envelopes is so constructed as to enclose only a few 

 of the cells of the first comb, the others being outside its periphery, 

 although the' cells of the first combs are covered by the outer 

 envelope. The innermost envelope is so in the way of the extend- 

 ing comb, ami is so irregular in its lower outline that it seems 

 probable that the occupants intended to tear it entirely awa)', and 

 then to exteiul the second tier of combs. (Fig. i.) 



The paper employed is weather-beaten wood fibre, torn off 

 and worked up by the mandibles, which are admirably adapted to 

 this purpose. The worker of our spotteel hornet, Vcs/ia iiuuitlatai 

 may be seen to tear off with its mandibles from the weather-beaten 

 surface of wood in a few seconds a mass of fibre, which is contin- 

 ually and neatly rolled in a sphere about the size of a No. 4 shot, 

 and held between the flexed anterior legs against the thorax to be 

 carried to the nest. 



The wood fibre is evidently moistened with some secretion 

 answering to saliva, and is then worked out into thin, minute sheets 

 of pulp, as these are constantly fastened in place in the construction 

 of the nest. In the substance of the nest one can see these minute 

 sheets in horizontal bands of varying color, showing the varying 

 origin of the material employed. 



On December 2,i\, 1877, at New Baltimore, N. Y., fifteen miles 

 south of Albany, at my recpiest a friend detached from the eaves 

 of his residence and brought to me two nests of the yellow-jacket. 

 I'hese nests, of course, at that season were deserted by the owners. 



