and exhibited the various means by which the young had escaped when the proper time had arrived for them to do so. In some cases the thin paper cap was perforated; in others it had been lifted as a cover; while, finally, in some it was practically gone altogether. Paper hornets will, as every one knows who has ever had any experience of the kind, sally forth in numbers and protect their nest by winged attacks en masse and in loose order, their stings being no trifling matter in many cases. I have before
Fig. 2.—Nest of the Paper Hornet (Vespa maculata). One side cut away to show interior. Collected and photographed by Dr. Shufeldt.
me another very pretty nest of this kind found in the same locality, but built by a different species. It is no bigger than an ordinary peg top, being attached to the twig of a blackberry vine by its large end, the apex, looking directly downward, being occupied by a single circular aperture leading to the interior. Externally this little structure is very smooth, and it contains but one small disk, composed of but seven or eight cells.
Other communities of social hornets build their vespiaries in
