256 HOBtES WITHOUT HANDS. 



hard, firm, and smooth, that they can withstand any vicissitudes 

 of weather, neither the fierce storms that hlow in those regions, 

 nor the torrents of rain that occasionally fall, having any power 

 over an edifice so well protected. 



The tiers of cells are variahle in numher ; a rather remarkable 

 fact, as the floors are made before the cells are built. In a good 

 specimen of this nest in the British Museum there are only 

 four tiers of cells. How many tiers are completed before the 

 insects begin to affix cells to them, or whether the cells are made 

 as soon as the floors are finished, are two points in the history 

 of this wasp which have not yet been decided. These floors 

 extend completely to the walls, to which they are fastened on 

 all sides, and the insects gain admission to the different floors 

 by means of a central opening which runs through them all. 



In Mr. Waterton's museum, at Walton Hall, are several speci- 

 mens of these nests, one of which is cut open so as to show the 

 interior, as well as the central aperture, the whole of the bottom 

 being cut away and raised like the lid of a box. The substance 

 of this nest resembles thin brownish pasteboard, and, as is the 

 custom with most of the wasp tribe, the cells are placed with 

 their mouths downward, the nurses being enabled to attend to 

 their charges by remaining on the floor of the next tier of cells. 

 Taking one row of cells as an average, I counted twenty-four 

 from the central aperture to the circumference, thus giving a 

 tolerable notion of the number of cells in each tier. The aper- 

 ture is not precisely in the middle, so that some rows of cells 

 are necessarily larger than others, but I purposely selected a row 

 which seemed to afi'ord a fair average. 



The common "Wasp (Vespa vulgaris) figures in several capacities. 

 It has already been mentioned as a Burrower, deserves notice as 

 a Social Insect, and must now be briefly described as a builder 

 of pensile nests. 



In the splendid museum at Oxford, there is an object which 

 never fails to attract the notice of visitors, whether entomologists 

 or not. It is a square glass case, some four feet in height by 

 two in width, and the interior of this large case is almost entirely 

 filled by a single wasp's nest. This enormous nest resembles a 

 turnip in shape, but with the addition of a large knob at the 

 top, by means of which it is suspended. 



