6644 



Insects. 



the lowest comb were lengthened and attached to the case, but these 

 were not otherwise materially altered, and were never further adapted 

 for breeding-cells. Sheet after sheet was added on, to the number 

 of five, and the nest finally was completely closed in, leaving only 

 one small entrance-hole. But, now that the nest was protected from 

 wind and rain by a wooden box, the wasps did not seem so careful 

 about cutting off loose ends from the outside as they had been in the 

 Gloucestershire hedgerow. They made all the repairs that were 

 absolutely necessary at the bottom, but to the rest of the outside of 

 the nest they added nothing all the while it hung outside my window. 



When the nest was closed in we could of course make out little of 

 what was going on inside, though the scraps of paper and building- 

 pellets which lay about, and the interminable nibbling and scratching 

 which we heard, attested to the industry of the little creatures, which 

 kept flying in and out as busily as ever. Some insight into their 

 proceedings, however, was obtained by the expedient of marking par- 

 ticular wasps, and the interest of watching the nest only ceased with 

 the extinction of the entire colony. 



Marking a wasp, like many other things, only wants a little prac- 

 tice to be very readily accomplished. Reaumur used to catch his 

 wasps with a rod pointed with some glutinous matter: I made use of 

 a glass tube, with a few inches of vulcanized India rubber and a glass 

 mouth-piece attached to one end. In the tube was a stop to allow a 

 free passage of air, and to prevent my sucking down the wasp. With 

 a very little practice it was easy to catch any wasp with this instru- 

 ment, and, gently blowing it out on a glove, to hold it safely 

 while some distinctive mark in white paint was put on the thorax 

 between the wings. By this means I often caught a wasp on the 

 wing, or picked one out of a cluster, without disturbing the rest. But 

 any attempt to remove the sentinel, however cautiously, was followed 

 by a commotion which drove me for safety to the dark corner of 

 my study. 



There were ample opportunities for observing the process of paper- 

 making during the repairs of the floor of the nest. It was precisely 

 that which has been described by Reaumur as witnessed by him in 

 the ground nests. Thus, a wasp, previously marked with paint be- 

 tween her wings, was seen to fly to the nest with an appearance of 

 having her jaws projecting forwards. A practised eye readily recog- 

 nized, by this position of the head, a wasp laden with a pellet for 

 paper-making. On one or two occasions the wasps thus laden set to 

 work at once, without entering the nest ; but generally they flew in 



