TEEE WASPS. 277 



1857, this nest was found at Cokethorpe Park, Oxfordsliire, being 

 then of moderate dimensions, and measuring about five inches in 

 diameter. It was taken from the ground, and hung near the 

 window of a dwelling-house upon the ground floor, so as to give 

 the inmates facility in procuring food. There was no danger in 

 the experiment, for, as has been mentioned on page 165, the wasp 

 is really a good-natured insect, unless irritated, and can be watched 

 as safely as the hive-bee. 



In order to induce the laborers to work with more assiduity, 

 the wasps were supplied with food in the shape of sugar and 

 beer, of which mixture they consumed a large amouni, their daily 

 allowance being a pound of sugar to a pint of beer, and the aggre- 

 gate weight being two pounds. Under such favorable auspices 

 they built their nest at a wonderful rate, when they were sud- 

 denly re-enforced after a singular manner. It so happened that 

 on the first floor of the house two other wasps' nests had been 

 placed. The workers of these nests were not fed like their kins- 

 men below, and, in consequence, about the end of August they 

 deserted their own house, and united with the more favored 

 wasps on the ground floor. The three colonies having thus 

 joined their forces, the nest grew with marvelous rapidity, and at 

 last attained the gigantic size which has already been mentioned. 



In shape it is very irregular, as though the turnip to which it 

 was compared had been made of a soft, yielding substance, and 

 had been thrown down and roughly handled. The entrance is 

 close to the bottom of the nest, and a little on one side, and just 

 by the opening the nest is flattened, and seems as if it had been 

 pinched by some giant finger and thumb. For this singular 

 structure we are indebted to Mr. S. Stone, of Brighthampton. 



There are also certain British wasps which always make pen- 

 sile nests, though none of them are so complicated or so finely 

 constructed as those of the pasteboard wasps of hotter climates. 



These are popularly called Tree Wasps, and the best known 

 among these pensile wasps is the insect which is .sometimes 

 known as Vespa Britannica, but which is now named Vespa Nor- 

 wegica, and may therefore be called the Norwegian Wasp. I 

 may here mention that, until a very late period, the history of the 

 wasp — whether British or foreign — was in dire chaos, the species, 

 sexes, and varieties being so confounded together that even the 

 best entomologists could make nothing of them. 



