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natural, history. 
is supposed to be spun from the animal’s body ; the males 
and females are of a size, but the former are without a sting. 
To these varieties of the bee kind might be added several 
others which are all different in nature, but not sufficiently 
distinguished to excite curiosity. 
The Wasp is well known to be a winged insect with a 
stiri'T ; to be longer in proportion to its bulk than the bee ; 
to be marked with bright yellow circles round its body, and 
to be the most swift and active insect ofall the fly kind. On 
each side of the mouth this animal is furnished with a long 
tooth notched like a saw, and with these it is enabled to cut 
any substance, not omitting meat itsell, and to carry it 
to its nest. Wasps live like bees in community, and some- 
times ten or twelve thousand are found inhabiting a single 
nest. 
Of all insects the wasp is the most fierce, voracious, and 
most dangerous, when enraged. They are seen wherever flesh 
is cutting up, gorging themselves with the spoil, and then fly- 
ing to their nests with their reeking prey. They make war also 
on every other fly, and the spider himself dreads their ap- 
proaches. 
Every community among bees is composed of females or 
queens, drones or males, and neutral or working bees. 
Wasps have similar occupations ; the two lirst are tor pro- 
pagating the species, the last for nursing, defending, and sup- 
porting the rising progeny. Among bees, however, there is 
seldom above a queen or two in a hive ; among wasps there 
are above two or three hundred. 
As soon as the summer begins to invigorate the insect 
tribes, the wasps are the most of the number, and are dili- 
gently employed either in providing provisions for their nest, 
if already made, or in making one, if the former habitation be 
too small to receive the increasing community. The nest 
is one of the most curious objects in Natural History, and 
contrived almost as artificially as that of the bees themselves. 
Their principal care is to seek out a hole that has been begun 
by some other animal, a field mouse, a rat or a mole, to 
build their nests in. They sometimes build upon the plain, 
where they are sure of the dryness of their situation ; but 
most commonly on the side of a bank, to avoid the rain of 
water that would otherwise annoy them. When they have 
chosen a proper place, they go to work with wonderful assi- 
duity. Their first labour is to enlarge and widen the hole, 
taking away the earth, and carrying it oil' to some distance. 
To prevent the earth from falling down and crushing their 
vising city into ruin, they make a sort of roof with their gluey 
