The Mason-bees 



I enquired; and everything was explained. 

 A born searcher and observer, the scholar 

 had long known what the master had not yet 

 heard of, namely, that there was a big black 

 Bee who made clay nests on the pebbles in the 

 harmas. These nests contained honey; and 

 my surveyors used to open them and empty 

 the cells with a straw. The honey, although 

 rather strong-flavoured, was most acceptable. 

 I acquired a taste for it myself and joined 

 the nest-hunters, putting oft the polygon till 

 later. It was thus that I first saw Reaumur's 

 Mason-bee, knowing nothing of her history 

 and, for that matter, knowing nothing of her 

 historian. 



The magnificent Bee herself, with her 

 dark-violet wings and black-velvet raiment, 

 her rustic edifices on the sun-blistered pebbles 

 amid the thyme, her honey, providing a di- 

 version from the severities of the compass 

 and the square, all made a great impression 

 on my mind; and I wanted to know more than 

 I had learned from the schoolboys, which was 

 just how to rob the cells of their honey with 

 a straw. As it happened, my bookseller had 

 a gorgeous work on insects for sale. It was 

 called Histoire natu7'elle des animaux articu- 

 8 



