. Insect architecture : to which are added, miscellanies, on the ravages, the preservation for purposes of study, and the classification, of insects . to those which we have al-ready described. The breaches which the nest mayhave suffered are then repaired, and the thickness of thewalls is augmented, with the design, perhaps, of moreeffectually excluding the light. The nest of the hornet is nearly the same in structurewith that of the wasp; but the materials are considerablycoarser, and the columns to which the platforms of cellsare suspended are larger and stronger, the middle onebeing twice
. Insect architecture : to which are added, miscellanies, on the ravages, the preservation for purposes of study, and the classification, of insects . to those which we have al-ready described. The breaches which the nest mayhave suffered are then repaired, and the thickness of thewalls is augmented, with the design, perhaps, of moreeffectually excluding the light. The nest of the hornet is nearly the same in structurewith that of the wasp; but the materials are considerablycoarser, and the columns to which the platforms of cellsare suspended are larger and stronger, the middle onebeing twice as thick as any of the others. The hornet,also, does not build underground, but in the cavities oftrees, or in the thatch or under the eaves of once found upon a wall a hornets nest whichhad not been long begun, and had it transferred to the SOCIAL-WASPS. 79 outside of his study-window ; but in consequence, as heimagined, of the absence of the foundress hornet at thetime it was removed, he could not get the other fiveliornets, of which the colony consisted, either to add tothe building or repair the damages which it had Hornets Nest in its first sta^e. M. Reaumur differs from our English naturalists,White, and Kirby and Spence, with respect to the ma-terials employed by the hornet for building. The lattersay that it employs decayed wood ; the former, that ituses the bark of the ash-tree, but takes less pains to splitit into fine fibres than wasps do ; not, however, because itis destitute of skill ; for in constructing the suspensorycolumns of the platforms, a paste is prepared little infe-rior to that made by wasps. We cannot, from our ownobservations, decide which of the above statements is cor- 80 INSECT ARCHITECTUEE. rect, as we have only once seen a hornet procuring mate-rials, at Compton-Bassett, in Wiltshire ; and in that caseit gnawed the inner bark of an elm which had been felledfor several months, and was, consequently, dry and mate
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