The Mason-bees 



hurt the larva's tender skin, is covered with 

 a coat of pure mortar. This inner whitewash, 

 however, is put on without any attempt at 

 art, indeed, one might say that it is ladled on 

 in great splashes; and the grub takes care, 

 after finishing its mess of honey, to make it- 

 self a cocoon and hang the rude walls of its 

 abode with silk. On the other hand, the An- 

 thophoras and the Halicti, two species of 

 Wild Bees whose grubs weave no cocoon, 

 delicately glaze the inside of their earthen 

 cells and give them the gloss of polished 

 Ivory. 



The structure, whose axis is nearly always 

 vertical and whose orifice faces upwards so as 

 not to let the honey escape, varies a little In 

 shape according to the supporting base. 

 When set on a horizontal surface, it rises like 

 a little oval tower; when fixed against an up- 

 right or slanting surface, It resembles the half 

 of a thimble divided from top to bottom. In 

 this case, the support itself, the pebble, com- 

 pletes the outer wall. 



When the cell is finished, the Bee at once 



sets to work to victual it. The flowers round 



about, especially those of the yellow broom 



{Genista scoparia), which In May deck the 



19 



