. Eyes and no eyes. ss, w^here she has spent the winter,she looks out for a hole in the ground, left perhapsby a mouse or a mole. Creeping into it, she makesit larger by biting the earth and kicking it outwith her hind feet. Then she flies away andscrapes small pieces of fibre off the trees andplants. You may sometimes see her scrapingwindow frames or posts with her ja^vs^s. She isgetting shreds of wood. With these she goes backto the hole, and works them up, with some glueymatter from her mouth, into a kind of greyishpaper or cardboard. Before it hardens she plasters this into the topof the h
. Eyes and no eyes. ss, w^here she has spent the winter,she looks out for a hole in the ground, left perhapsby a mouse or a mole. Creeping into it, she makesit larger by biting the earth and kicking it outwith her hind feet. Then she flies away andscrapes small pieces of fibre off the trees andplants. You may sometimes see her scrapingwindow frames or posts with her ja^vs^s. She isgetting shreds of wood. With these she goes backto the hole, and works them up, with some glueymatter from her mouth, into a kind of greyishpaper or cardboard. Before it hardens she plasters this into the topof the hole, making a thick lump, which she gluesto the roots of plants. Then she starts afresh formore fibre, and with it builds a few cells underthe lump. She lays an egg in each, and tlien go^s ou making WASPS AND THETB WAYS. 43 more paj)er and more cells. In about eight daysthe first eggs are hatched into legless grubs, andshe feeds them with honey and insects, still goingon with her work. In about three weeks Cie grubs. INSIDK OK COMMON WASPS NEST. spin their cocoons, and in another week they comeout as working wasps. After that, some come outalmost every day, and the queen-wasp leaves themto do the work of building the nest and feedingthe grubs, while she only lays eggs. 44 INSECT LIFE. They not only build cells, they also cover thenest with a papery dome of several layers, whichhangs like an open umbrella from the lump atthe top. When they have finished one comb itis like a round plate, and is smooth above, witha great number of cells underneath, all openingdownwards. The wasps then make several gluey pillars underthis comb to hold up a new one below which theyform in the same way as the first. So they go ontill August, when there may be fifteen or sixteenflat round plates one below the other, joined by anumber of pillars. Then they draw the papery
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