86 
STRANGE DWELLINGS. 
upon his treasures. It is true that the Wasp is very fond of 
ripe fruit, and that with an unfailing instinct it prefers the 
choicest fruits, exactly when they are in their best condition, 
gnawing holes in them, and spoiling them for the market. Still 
it is more of a predaceous than a vegetable-feeding insect, and 
kills so many flies that it relieves the gardener of other foes, I 
which, in the end, would be more injurious than itself, inas- 
much as their larvae endanger not only the fruit but the very life 
of the plant. It is a strangely bold insect, and has recourse to 
singular methods of procuring food. In the farming depart- 
ment at Walton Hall, I have seen the pigs lying in the warm 
sunshine, the flies clustering thickly on their bodies, and the 
Wasps pouncing on the flies and carrying them off. It was a ji 
curious sight to watch the total indifference of the pigs, the 
busy clustering of the flies, with which the hide was absolutely 
blackened in some places, and then to see the yellow-bodied 
Wasp, just clear the wall, dart into the dark mass', and retreat 
again with a fly in its fatal grasp. On the average, one Wasp 
arrived every ten seconds, so that the pigsty must have been a 
well-known storehouse for these insects. 
As is well known to every boy who has participated in the 
delight of taking a Wasp’s nest, the habitation of the insect is j 
mostly under ground, and is a marvel of ingenious industry. || 
The shape is more or less globular, and the material of which 
it is composed is very much like coarse brown paper, though | 
not so tough. If it be opened, a wonderful scene is disclosed 
terrace upon terrace of hexagonal cells being arranged in regu- 
lar rows, and enclosed in a shell of papery substance, some 
half-an-inch in thickness, which is evidently intended to prevent 
the earth from falling among the combs, as these cell- terraces f 
are called. 
We will now suppose ourselves to be present at the construc- 
tion of the nest, and, Prospero-like, will see without being seen. 
In the early days of spring, a Wasp issues from the place 
in which it has passed the winter, and anxiously surveys the. j 
country. She does not fly fast nor high, but passes slowly and 
carefully along, examining every earth-bank, and entering every 
