Bibliographical Notices. 127 



formed of abraded vegetable matter ; the process is repeated until the 

 requisite number is formed, when the whole is most carefully pro- 

 tected by closing up the entrance with small pellets of clay, sticks 

 and pebbles ; these are firmly cemented together with some glutinous 

 matter, and the bee has finished her task. 



*' We will now observe the intelhgence of the bee under different 

 circumstances : she has selected the adult shell of Helix aspersa ; 

 the whorl of this species is much larger in diameter than that of 

 H. nemoralis or H. hortensis — too wide, in fact, for a single cell ; 

 our little architect, never at a loss, readily adapts it to her purpose 

 by forming two cells side by side, and as she advances towards the 

 entrance of the whorl, it becomes too wide even for this contrivance ; 

 here let us admire the ingenuity of the little creature ; she constructs 

 a couple of cells transversely ! And this is the little animal which 

 has been so blindly slandered as being a mere machine ! 



" There is still another species of this genus whose habits are so 

 different to the rest, that our admiration of the ingenuity of these 

 bees is greatly increased when we consider its curious details and re- 

 flect upon the degree of care and foresight exhibited by the provi- 

 dent parent, — this is the Osmia parietina, a bee only found in the 

 northern parts of this country. This species selects the underside of 

 a slate or stone lying on the ground, and having a hollow space be- 

 neath ; to the stone the bee attaches the little balls of pollen. A stone 

 of this kind was found at Glen Almond, Perthshire, on the Grampians, 

 800 feet above the level of the sea, by Mr. J. Robertson, who, on 

 turning it up, observed a mass of cocoons ; although he was not 

 much acquainted with entomology, still he knew them to be the 

 production of some insect ; he presented the stone to the British 

 Museum, and it was placed in my hands for observation. The size 

 of the stone was 1 inches by 6 ; the number of cocoons attached to 

 it two hundred and thirty : when first discovered, about one-third of 

 them were empty ; this was in the month of November. In the 

 beginning of the following March, a few males made their appear- 

 ance, and shortly afterwards some females ; they continued to come 

 forth occasionally until the end of June ; at this time there remained 

 thirty-five undeveloped cocoons ; on opening one or two of them, 

 they proved to contain active larvae ; these I carefully closed, and left 

 the whole undisturbed until the following April, at which time, on 

 examination, they proved to be still in the larva state ; but at the 

 end of May they changed to pupse, and about the end of June began 

 to come forth perfect insects. This, then, was the result — a portion 

 of a deposit of eggs made in 1849 had been three years in arriving 

 at maturity : when found, one-third were developed ; the following 

 year a second brood came forth, and whilst in my possession a third. 

 In the first instance, the whole deposit was subject to the same 

 influences, and had produced larvse ; what was the cause of the 

 retarded development of the rest, it were vain to attempt to deter- 

 mine.'* 



There can be no doubt that this is one of the most valuable con- 



