The Mason-bees , 



revered names of Reaumur, Huber^ and Leon 

 Dufour;- and, while I turned over the pages 

 for the hundredth time, a voice within me 

 seemed to whisper: 



"You also shall be of their company!" 

 Ah, fond Illusions, what has come of you?^ 

 But let us banish these recollections, at once 

 sweet and sad, and speak of the doings of our 

 black Bee. Chalicodoma, meaning a house 

 of pebbles, concrete or mortar, would be 

 a most satisfactory title, were it not that 

 it has an odd sound to any one un- 

 familiar with Greek. The rame Is given 

 to Bees who build their s with mate- 

 rials similar to those ■* i we employ 

 for our own dwellings. work of these 



^Fran^ois Huber (1750-1831), tae Swiss naturalist, 

 author of Nouvelles observations sur les abeilles. He 

 early became blind from excessive study and conducted 

 his scientific work thereafter with the aid of his wife. — 

 Translator's Note. 



2Jean Marie Leon Dufour (1780-1865), an army sur- 

 geon who served with distinction in several campaigns 

 and subsequently practised as a doctor in the Landcs, 

 where he attained great eminence as a naturalist Fabre 

 often refers to him as the Wizard of the Landes. Cf. 

 The Life of the Spider, by J. Henri Fabre, translated 

 by Alexander Teixeira de Mattos: chap, i; and The Life 

 of the Fly: chap. i. — Translator's Note. 



^The present essay is one of the earliest in the Souve- 

 nirs Entomologiques, — Translator's Note. 

 10 



