FABRE'S BOOK OF INSECTS 



but the favourite spots, those to which the greatest 

 number of swarms resort, are straight stretches of ground 

 exposed to the south, such as occur in the cuttings of 

 deeply-sunken roads. Here, over areas many yards in 

 width, the wall is drilled with a multitude of holes, 

 which give to the earthy mass the look of some enormous 

 sponge. These round holes might have been made with 

 a gimlet, so regular are they. Each is the entrance to 

 a winding corridor, which runs to the depth of four or 

 five inches. The cells are at the far end. If we wish 

 to watch the labours of the industrious Bee we must 

 visit her workshop during the latter half of May. Then 

 — but at a respectful distance — we may see, in all its 

 bewildering activity, the tumultuous, buzzing swarm, 

 busied with the building and provisioning of the cells. 

 But it has been most often during the months of 

 August and September, the happy months of the summer 

 holidays, that I have visited the banks inhabited by the 

 Anthophora. At this season all is silent near the nests: 

 the work has long been completed: and numbers of 

 Spiders' webs line the crevices or plunge their silken 

 tubes into the Bees' corridors. That is no reason, how- 

 ever, for hastily abandoning the city that was once so 

 full of life and bustle, and now appears deserted. A 

 few inches below the surface, thousands of grubs are 

 imprisoned in their cells of clay, resting until the coming 



[158] 



