68 



THE NATIONAL GEOGRAPHIC MAGAZINE 



IX. 



SYNONYM FOE TROUBLE- 



Pliiitoeraph by L\'n\V(H)d M. Chase 

 -A HORNKTS' NEST I 



Flimsy and fragile may seem the paper home of the white-faced hornets (Color Plate V. upper), yet 

 summer wind and rain do it little damage. The nest is used only a single season (pages 70 and 71). Like 

 masonry, the art of papermaking was practiced among the wasps and hornets long before it was known 

 to man. The insects manufacture their own pulp by chewing tiny bits of weathered wood. One nest 

 exhibited at the National Mu.seum in Washinglcm. L). C, bears vivid reddish streaks throughout, for some 

 of the workers ohfained their pulp from painted \A'0od. 



