THE, MUD-DAUBER AND ITS WAYS 
65 
are flattened, oval in shape, slate colored, and are placed in a double 
overlapping row on twigs and leaves. One female will lay as many 
as 150 eggs in one season. These eggs hatch out the following spring. 
In the Southern States there are two generations each year. In the 
North they are single brooded. —N. Grace Graham. 
THE MUD-DAUBER AND ITS WAYS 
' | V ITE wasps are indeed an interesting family. Being related to bees, 
they are somewhat like bees in structure and habits. Some live 
in communities, having division* of labor somewhat similar to the com¬ 
munity-bee; while others live solitary lives as do some* bees. 
Many of the solitary wasps display wonderful instinct in making 
their simple homes and providing food for their young. Since the 
mother wasp does all the work in providing a home and food for her 
children, it is little wonder that her young are not as tenderly fed and 
cared for as the young of those living in communities where there are 
many workers. Nevertheless, in a peculiar way, she provides well 
for her babies. 
There are a great many kinds of solitary wasps, and they are 
distinguished largely by the kinds of homes they build. The mud- 
dauber and some others, all of which are sometimes called the masons, 
build their nests of mud. Another class, sometimes called the car¬ 
penters, bore holes in wood and the stems of twigs or even in straw. 
Still others, the miners, excavate holes an the ground as homes for the 
development of their young. 
The mud-dauber is the best known of all these wasps, as it is very 
abundant in country places and builds its little mud nests in attics and 
outbuildings. Doubtless most of us are as familiar with its high-keyed 
buzzing sound as with its little mud house, for it keeps up a continual 
singing as it works. 
If we could follow it as it leaves its nest for a load of material, we 
should see it light upon the muddy bank of a pond or a drain, perhaps, 
and go to work with all its might, to chisel out a little pellet about the 
size of a sweet-pea seed. It is rather amusing to see one stand on its 
head with its tail straight up as, with its jaws, it completes the separa¬ 
tion of the ball of mud from the bank. Then with the mud in its jaws, it 
flies awav to* add a little to the cell under construction. 
