The last nest is made of some substance which is smooth, and hard as horn, brown within, and dark grey on the outside. The circular lid by which the enclosed insect escapes is shown open. In the accompanying illustration, we have five remarkable pensile nests of insects, some British, and others exotic. Fig. 1 represents the nest of a Pelopæus from Natal. It is made of dried cow-dung, and is fixed to straws. The length is from three to five inches, and there are sometimes found three or more in a row upon a single straw. The insect is about an inch in length, black-blue in colour, and with clouded wings. The abdomen is small, sharply pointed, and placed on a long footstalk. [Illustration: Nests of Pelopæus (1, 2); Anthidium (3); Trypoxylon (4); and Eumenes (5).] At Fig. 2 is seen the nest of _Pelopæus Flavipes_, a North American insect, which is also fixed along its whole length to the supporting object, which is sometimes a wall, and sometimes, as in the illustration, a branch. It is made of mud, and the insects seem to have a sort of gregarious instinct, loving to fix their nests in rows, one above the other. There is only one larva in each cell. The Pelopæi are, by the way, allied to the English genus _Ammophila_. Fig. 3 shows the nest of _Anthidium cordatum_, one of the solitary bees of Natal. It is made of vegetable fibres. The insect as well as the nest is represented of the natural size. It is black and shining, with the under part and sides and legs yellowish. At Fig. 4 are seen three of the nests of _Trypoxylon aurifrons_, a Brazilian insect. They are built of mud, and are remarkable for their elegant shape, which looks as if it had been formed by the hand of the potter, and for the manner in which the mouth is turned over so as to form a distinct neck. The larvæ is fed with a store of spiders. The insect is represented of the natural size; its colour is black, and the face is covered with short golden hairs, a fact which has gained for it the name of aurifrons, or golden-fronted. Our last example, Fig. 5, is the nest of an English insect, _Eumenes coarctata_. The insect is represented of its natural size. It is very pretty in colour as well as elegant in shape, being black, diversified with yellow bands and spots. The nest is made of clay, and is found upon the heath twigs. The larvæ of the Eumenes are fed with those of a species of _Crambus_. The insect is tolerably common in Surrey and Hampshire, and appears in July and August.