3g6 
COMMON WASP. 
some are digging, others are in the fields seeking 
materials for the edifice. As they proceed, they 
strengthen the roof of the cave and prevent its fall- 
ing in by cementing it with glue ; they then affix 
it to the foundation of their building, which they 
continue to finish downwards, closing it at the 
bottom. 
The materials with which they build their nests 
are bits of wood and glue : the male wasps are dis- 
patched to cut the former out of the frames of win- 
dows, or from old rails and posts, which they meet 
with in the fields or elsewhere. In this employ 
thev are very active, and will saw and carry away a 
vast quantity of minute shivers, which they take 
up in bundles in their claws ; and, when arrived at 
the nest, knead the whole together, by letting a 
few drops of a glutinous liquor fall upon the mass. 
The whole is then worked into a paste, and placed 
on that part of the building where the walls and 
partitions are intended to be made. The paste is 
then spread out by the workman with his trunk and 
paws, who constantly moves backwards all the way. 
When the composition is reduced to a level surface, 
the wasp returns to the place where he began, and 
repeats the same operation, in the same retrograde 
manner, till the lump of wood and glue is beat out 
so exceedingly thin, that the finest paper is hardly 
to be compared with it. The wasp, having com- 
pleted his work on the first parcel of materials, re- 
turns to the fields for more, which he kneads in the 
same manner, placing layer upon layer ; and thus 
