The Mason-bees 



cumference to the centre. Two days at most 

 appeared to me to be enough for everything, 

 provided that no bad weather — rain or 

 merely clouds — came to interrupt the labour. 

 Then a second cell is built, backing on the 

 first and provisioned in the same manner. A 

 third, a fourth and so on follow, each sup- 

 plied with honey and an egg and closed be- 

 fore the foundations of the next are laid. 

 Each task begun is continued until it is quite 

 finished; the Bee never commences a new cell 

 until the four processes needed for the con- 

 struction of its predecessor are completed: 

 the building, the victualling, the laying of the 

 egg and the closing of the cell. 



As the Mason-bee of the Walls always 

 works by herself on the pebble which she has 

 chosen and even shows herself very jealous 

 of her site when her neighbours alight upon 

 It, the number of cells set back to back upon 

 one pebble Is not large, usually varying be- 

 tween six and ten. Do some eight grubs 

 represent the Bee's whole family? Or does 

 she afterward go and establish a more numer- 

 ous progeny on other boulders? The surface 

 of the same stone is spacious enough to pro- 

 vide a support for further cells if the num- 



21 



