54 THEODORE H. PRISON. 



wool. In several instances I used in my boxes without alteration, 

 except for the addition of a top covering, the nests of small 

 birds such as those made by field sparrows. 



Bumblebees always keep the brood and comb well covered, in 

 order to exclude light, avoid temperature fluctuations, etc. 

 When making daily observations on a colony I always found 

 it necessary to remove the covering of the nest. When it was 

 replaced again the workers or queen would immediately start 

 to work and repair it. To save the bumblebees the daily 

 repetition of repairing the top covering, I devised a square pad 

 of four or five layers of cheese cloth, fastened these together 

 and then placed this pad over the comb. This gave very good 

 results. All I needed to do in order to see the contents of the 

 nest was to lift the cheese-cloth pad, and then upon finishing my 

 observations, replace the same. The bumblebees readily ac- 

 cepted this substitute for the covering of their own making and 

 in so doing saved themselves from constantly repairing the top. 

 As was the case with the grass top, the bumblebees plastered a 

 thin coat or layer of wax and pollen composition on the side of 

 the pad adjacent to the brood chamber. Later I went a step 

 farther and coated one side of the cheese cloth pad with pure 

 melted honeybee wax before placing it over the nest. This 

 seemed to break the bumblebees of their habit or instinct of 

 coating the pad with wax and pollen and hence resulted in a 

 considerable saving to them of time and materials. The fact 

 that the bumblebees accepted the artificial wax-lined cheese 

 cloth pad without material change is a good indication that it 

 fulfilled all the requirements of their instincts in this direction. 



The artificial top proved to be such a decided success that I 

 next tried to make the whole nest of cheese cloth coated on the 

 inside with wax. I first tried lining the bottom of the box with 

 cheese cloth, and then lining this with the melted wax. Then I 

 placed over this a dome-shaped cover of wax-coated cheese 

 cloth. Of course an entrance into this enclosed chamber was 

 provided. Because of certain undesirable features I abandoned 

 this method. Finally, I resorted to lining merely the bottom 

 and sides of the back part of the box with four or five layers of 

 cheese cloth and then coating this with melted wax. For the 



