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HE very name of a
is a byword,

wasp
is it not? So much

easier is it to give
any thing or any
person a bad cha-
racter than a good

one, that a long time will elapse before the wasp will be thought well of by people generally, because our great-greatgrandfathers, not knowing much about natural history, set down the wasp as a thieving, spiteful, and

injurious insect, deserving to be destroyed at any opportunity.

A waspish person, then, is not one to be imitated, if we take the word in the old familiar sense, but, on the other hand, it could be proved that a little more knowledge of wasp habits might lead us to say that in several respects people who are waspish may show much excellence.

A wasp stings for exactly the same reason that any person in a dense crowd, if he has common

sense, and in danger of being hurt, puts up his arms edgeways-it protects itself from danger by the best means in its power, and certainly does not wound from malice or sport. Those who have studied bees and wasps have come to the conclusion that the latter is not so easily provoked to sting as its relation, which bears a better name. Occasionally a wasp may be seen resting on something and darting its sting in and out, and we have heard persons say, "Spiteful thing; it wants to sting somebody." Now, in fact, the wasp wants to do nothing of the kind; it is simply doing what every soldier has to do at times-it is cleaning its weapon, and preparing it for a moment of need, by brushing off dust or dirt from it. A wasp would be awkwardly situated if an enemy seized it, and when it endeavoured to use its sting it found the weapon blunted, or that it could not move it out of the sheath.

What in us would be wise forethought, the insect shows in its conduct, taught by instinct; in which we see, as a writer has well expressed it, "the hand of God moving behind a veil.”

Sir John Lubbock tells us that these insects, when they have work to do, persevere at it. He supplied some of them with a store of sweets, and noticed that they travelled backwards and forwards to their nest regularly all through the day. Every hour they made the same number of journeys, showing they spent no time in idling or looking at other insects who were busy. They were at it early, too, commencing before six, though it was September and the days were cold. Carrying food to the nest is only a small part of the wasp's labour; a much heavier part is the building or repairing of the nest, and the careful tending of the young wasps. Placing itself on a decayed piece of wood, one of these insects scrapes the surface diligently with its jaws, and carrying off a little heap of the fragments, it moistens and makes them into a paste. It has been noticed that whenever wasps can do so they economise their time by getting their materials close to the nest. Having prepared sufficient for its purpose, the fibre, which now looks like coarse paper, is used in several ways. Within the nest, wasps work with

great rapidity, yet they always finish off the walls, galleries, and chambers with amazing neatness. One fact is observed that is curious: when engaged on a strip of the nest, a wasp works backwards, so that it can see, as it proceeds, how it is doing its work.

The feeding of the young wasps is done very tenderly by the parent insects. The young grub has no power to get food for itself; it cannot even feed itself, for it has no i

legs, and a mouth which cannot take up anything. Like the nursling of a bird, the baby wasp gapes when it is hungry, and into its mouth is carefully popped such small bits of food as it can swallow comfortably. So particular are wasps about cleanliness in their nurseries, that a party of the insects has the special duty of brushing out and purifying the passages and cells.

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