276 HOMES WITHOUT HANDS. 



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

 weather, neither the fierce storms that blow 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 variable in number ; 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 aifix 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 com- 

 pletely 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 tol- 

 erable notion of the number of cells in each tier. * The aperture 

 is not precisely in the middle, so that some rows of cells are nec- 

 essarily larger than others, but I purposely selected a row which 

 seemed to afford a fair average. 



The common Wasp ( Vespa vulgaris) figures in several cS,paci- 

 ties. It has already been mentioned as a Burrower, deserves 

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

 buUder 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 to^, 

 by means of which it is suspended. 



Its origin is sufBiciently remarkable. On the 18th of July, 



