The Mason-bees 



as the sun is high enough. When it is late, 

 if the house is not yet closed, the Bee retires 

 to her cell to spend the night there, head 

 downward, tip of the abdomen outside, a 

 habit foreign to the Chalicodoma of the 

 Sheds. Then and then alone the Mason 

 rests; but it is a rest that is in a sense equiva- 

 lent to work, for, thus placed, she blocl<:s the 

 entrance to the honey-store and defends her 

 treasure against twilight- or night-marauders. 



Being anxious to form some estimate of 

 the total distance covered by the Bee in the 

 construction and provisioning of a single cell, 

 I counted the number of steps from a nest to 

 the road where the mortar was mixed and 

 from the same nest to the sainfoin-field where 

 the harvest was gathered. I took such note 

 as my patience permitted of the journeys 

 made in both directions; and, completing 

 these data with a comparison between the 

 work done and that which remained to do, I 

 arrived at nine and a half miles as the result 

 of the total travelling. Of course, I give this 

 figure only as a rough calculation; greater 

 precision would have demanded more perse- 

 verance than I can boast. 



Such as it is, the result, which is probably 

 252 



