"_Vespa crabro_ and _V. vulgaris_ are the only species which use decayed wood or touchwood in the fabrication of their nests; the other species employ sound wood, varied occasionally by sound vegetable fibre obtained from plants of different kinds. "From the upper combs in a nest, workers are produced; from the lower ones, queens or females; and from the intermediate ones, males. Workers become developed early in the season, males not till an advanced period; and young females or queens not until towards the close of the season. "The nests of _V. crabro_, _V. vulgaris_, and _V. germanica_, when of full size, measure not unfrequently twelve inches in diameter, the communities working on, in a favourable season, until the month of November; while the labours of the other species close, and the communities break up towards the end of August; their nests scarcely attaining to half the size of those above mentioned." The accompanying illustration exhibits the nest of the common wasp in an early stage. The first cover has been completed, and a second is in course of progress. We have now before us a beautiful series of wasps' nests, in their various stages, prepared by Mr. Stone, in order to show the progressive enlargement of the edifice. [Illustration: Nest of Wasp in an early stage.] First, there is the single cell attached to a small part that had penetrated the roof of the burrow. Next comes a more advanced stage, in which three cells are made, and the roof is just begun, being not quite half an inch in diameter. Then come five cells, and a tolerably large roof; and then twelve cells, with a complete roof. The next stage is that which is represented in the illustration, where the group of cells is seen suspended from its slender footstalk, and a second covering is in progress. By degrees the nest enlarges until the second layer or tier of cells is begun, while the first tier is occupied in the centre by the pupæ, sheltered by their little silk doors, and on the circumference by the larvæ, whose cells are still open in order to allow themselves to be fed by the nurse-wasps. [Illustration: Section of the same Nest, showing the first tier of Cells.] In these nests, the difference between the homes of _Vespa vulgaris_ and those of _V. germanica_ is very strongly marked, the former being yellowish brown, and the latter grey. One nest of _V. germanica_, is remarkable for being thickly studded with the long, white eggs of some insect, probably a parasite, which has gained admittance to the burrow, in spite of the care of its guardians. It may be here mentioned, that _V. germanica_ is by far the most common species of wasp in England.