WAX- WORKERS 153 



of the field mouse, she probably finds it already 

 provided with material suited for her use. This 

 will consist of half-rotted grass, finely divided and 

 cut into short lengths. The mouse is very par- 

 ticular in the selection of material, taking the 

 withered blades from the base of a tussock and 

 dividing them lengthwise as well as cross-wise in 

 order to have them perfectly ductile and capable 

 of felting. This also is the quality of material the 

 Humble Bee likes. Sometimes she mixes fragments 

 of fine moss with it, probably to increase its springi- 

 ness. All this material is taken, bit by bit, in her 

 jaws, passed by her two hinder pairs of legs under 

 her body and accumulated behind her. Then she 

 pierces a tunnel to its centre, where she hollows 

 out a small oval chamber. Her home is ready for 

 furnishing. 



She next sets off on a hunt among the flowers, 

 and comes back a little later with her thighs bulging 

 with masses of pollen and her honey-crop filled 

 with nectar. She brushes off the pollen in a 

 little heap upon the floor of her nest and moistens 

 it with honey ; then with her jaws kneads it into 

 a paste which she builds up into a solid mass. Upon 

 this she constructs a ring- like wall of wax — her 

 first cell, of which the pollen mass forms the floor. 

 In this cell she lays about a dozen eggs, and then 

 closes in the top with a dome of wax. She also 

 constructs a pot of thin wax to contain honey, 

 which is placed in the doorway of the nest-chamber 

 and filled with honey. The honey-pot is about 



