Marvels of the Universe 



399 



Her flight did not continue very far before she suddenly swooped down, ahghting upon an old 

 and broken fence, where she flew from post to post as if at play ; but queen Wasps have no time 

 for play ; there is probably no animal that hves which works so hard and so persistently. She had 

 discovered the building material for the city which she was to establish and she was making herself 

 acquainted \\ith its exact location. 



the whole course of the fence. 

 There she 



Presently she ascended in the air again, and, after flying along 

 she suddenly turned and flew in a circular direction to^^-ards a high hedgerow bank 

 spent twenty minutes or more, 

 running in and out of the crevices 

 amongst the sandstone and soil of 

 the bank. In one of these holes 

 (which probably was once the 

 home of a pair of field-mice and 

 their famih') she spent a great 

 deal of time. Just what she was 

 doing inside was difficult to say, 

 but it was fair]}- obvious that she 

 was cleaning up the place a bit, for 

 everj' now and again she would 

 come to the outside of the hole 

 and on each occasion she earned 

 something in her mouth which she 

 dropped outside. Sometimes it 

 would be a scrap of dried nut- 

 shell, sometimes a bit of root or a 

 seed, and not infrequenth" a little 

 pebble. These actions made it 

 quite clear that she had com- 

 menced operations for building a 

 Wasp city and was clearing the 

 ground. 



After nearly two hours at this 

 work she came outside very dusty 

 and dirty, but she quickly ar- 

 ranged her toilet (which is always 

 an important matter with a Wasp) 

 and then she flew towards the old 

 fence, following the circular route 

 by which she came earlier in the 

 day, and meeting the fence at the 

 end just where she had left it. 

 Afterwards she made some hundreds of visits to that fence, but she always followed the same 

 course, although the distance would have been much shorter had she flown direct to her building- 

 site instead of following the long, circular route. The fact is, if she had gone any other way she 

 would have got lost ; for Wasps have to find their way by familiar landmarks, and if the latter are 

 disturbed they become like a ship without a rudder. If, however, it should discover its nest by 

 accident during its wanderings it will find it again and again afterwards, but always by the last route 

 which it discovered. 



In this connection the writer, during the past summer, had a live nest of Wasps under observation 



I'holo hyl 



The species of Wasp 

 those that construct their 

 are the same. 



NEST OF A TREE 



that builds 



nests in th 



WASP. 



trees and bushes is different from 

 earth ; but the internal arrangements 



