48o 



Marvels of Insect Life, 



wind, to ballast itself by carrying a small stone. Reaumur supposes that in this 

 matter these ancient authors were misled by seeing the mason-bee conveying one 

 of the blocks of concrete she has constructed by cementing sand-grains together. 

 But really in this matter they may have been misled only to the extent of 

 mistaking the mason-bee for the honey-bee, for there is no doubt that the former 



lightens her labour somewhat and 

 strengthens her building, by incorpor- 

 ating in it small stones. These have 

 to be angular fragments or chips, 

 such as are broken off larger masses 

 by the action of frost. These are 

 usually plentiful at the base of a 

 natural rock face, and fragments that 

 are small enough to be gripped by the 

 bee's jaws are carried home and worked 

 into her masonry. Sometimes the bee's 

 masonry is attached to an old wall ; 

 but it has been noticed that in that 

 case she is careful to attach it wholly 

 to the stones of which the wall is 

 composed, and not to the mortar that 

 connects them. The wall may have 

 been " jerry-built " — stuck together 

 with a mortar composed of soft earth 

 and spent lime — or the mortar origi- 

 nally good may have perished. In 

 either case it would not make a reliable 

 union with the new concrete. Possibly 

 mason-bees in the distant past worked 

 on such shoddy human foundations 

 and found their work tumbling down 

 before it was finished, and so those 

 of the present day have inherited 

 a prejudice against trusting to any- 

 thing but solid stone — either tlu' un- 

 tone incorporated in a wall. The 



thi'N- do not 

 will not onl\' 

 j)ur))ose in a 

 previous year, but they will light with one of their own sp(H-i(^s for possession of it. 



Photo by] 



Mason-]3ee at Work. 



.\ noaa-r view of the bee at work liiiishiiit; off her masonry. The 

 mouth ot a cell proper is exposed at the top, and is being covered 

 in by a mass of concrete that makes it less conspicuous. 



hewed 

 thi^ 



altered natural rock or the 



remarkable thing is that with this sns])icion of old mcM'tar, 

 hesitate to use and adapt old work of their own kind. The\ 

 clean up, re})air, and stock a mason-bee's nest that served its 



The P2nd. 



