508 HABITATIONS OF INSECTS. 



terial even more singular than any of those which have 

 of late been proposed for this purpose ; namely, the fibres 

 of wood 3 . These they detach by means of their jaws 

 from window-frames, posts and rails, &c, and, when 

 they have amassed a heap of the filaments, moisten the 

 whole with a few drops of a viscid glue from their mouth, 

 and, kneading it with their jaws into a sort of paste or 

 papier mdche, fly off it with it to their nest. This ductile 

 mass they attach to that part of the building upon which 

 they are at work, walking backwards and spreading it 

 into laminae of the requisite thinness by means of their 

 jaws, tongue, and legs. This operation is repeated 

 several times, until at length, by aid of fresh supplies of 

 the material and the combined exertions of so many 

 workmen, the proper number of layers of paper that are 

 to compose the roof is finished. This paper is as thin 

 as that of the letter which you are reading; and you 

 may form an idea of the labour which even the exterior 

 of a wasp's nest requires, on being told that not fewer 

 than fifteen or sixteen sheets of it are usually placed above 

 each other with slight intervening spaces, making the 

 whole upwards of an inch and a half in thickness. When 

 the dome is completed, the uppermost comb is next be- 

 gun, in which, as well as all the other parts of the 

 building, precisely the same material and the same pro- 

 cess, with little variation, are employed. In the struc- 

 ture of the connecting pillars there seems a greater quan- 



a Reaumur says decaying wood\ vi. 182; but White asserts (and 

 niy own observations confirm his opinion) that wasps obtain their 

 paper from sound timber ; hornets, only from that which is decayed. 

 White's Nat. Hist, by Mark wick, ii. 328. 



