TBE DBONS BX& 



THE CARDING BEE. 527 



the shell, having the shape of a maggot rolled up ic a ring, and lyin^. 

 softly on a bed of a whitish-colored jelly, on which i begins to feed. 

 The common Bees then attend with astonishing 

 tenderness and anxiety : they furnish it with 

 food, and watch over it with unremitting assid- 

 uity. In about six days the grub attains its 

 full growth, when its affectionate attendant? 

 shut up the mouth of its apartment with wax, 

 m order to secure it from injury. Thus en- 

 closed, it soon begins to line the \\'alls of i a 

 cell with a silken tapestry, in which it undergoes its last transforma- 

 tion. 



When it first crawls forth a winged insect, it is very weak and 

 inactive; but in the course of a few hours, it acquires strength enough 

 to fly off to its labor. On its emerging from the cell, the officious 

 Bees flock round it, and lick up its moisture with their tongues. 

 One party brings honey for it to feed upon ; and another is employed 

 in cleansing the cell, and carrying out the filth, for the purpose of 

 preparing it for a new inhabitant. 



The neuter Bees in a hive amount to the number of sixteen or 

 eighteen thousand. These are all armed with stings. The males are 

 called Drones: they are unarmed, and are always killed by the 

 neuters, about the month of September. 



THE CARDING BEE. 



This Bee is yellow, with the hair of the thorax somewhat fawn- 

 colored. 



Nearly all the Carding Bees perish in the win- 

 ter: a few of the females only survive. These 

 usually make their appearance early in the spring, 

 as soon as the catkins of the willows are in blos- 

 som; upon which, at this time, they may be seen 

 THE cARcisQ BEE. collcctiug honcy from the female, and pollen from 

 the male catkins. 

 When these animals, of any sex, are walking on the ground, if a 

 finger be moved to them, they lift up three legs on one side, by way 

 of defence; which gives them a very grotesque appearance. 



Their nests are usually formed in meadows and pastures, sometimes 

 in groves and hedge-rows, where the soil is entangled with roots; but 

 now and then these are found in heaps of stones. When they do not 

 meet with an accidental cavity ready made, the Carding Bees, with 

 great labor, excavate one. This they cover with a thick convex vault 

 of moss, sometimes casing the interior with a kind of coarse wax, to 

 keep out the wet. At the lower part of the nest there is an opening 

 for the inhabitants to go in and out at. This entrance is often through 

 a long gallery, or covered way, a foot or upwards in length, by which 

 the nest is concealed from observation. 



The mode in which they transport the moss employed in the for- 



