PAMILI^. {Melitta. **. c.) J43 



in the manner he has described, have been disco- 

 vered in England. 



" It usually excavates/' says he, " its little bur- 

 rows in a path-wa}^ to the depth of nearly three 

 inches, they are cylindrical to within seven or 

 eight lines of the bottom \\'here the animal gives it 

 a form which approaches to hemispherical. When 

 the ingenious architect has given its little apart- 

 ment its due proportions and dimensions, and made 

 the walls even, for their covering she prepares a 

 splendid kind of tapestry, selecting the scarlet 

 flowers of the wild poppy for this purpose; from 

 these, v/ith great dexterity, she cuts pieces of a 

 proper form and size, which she conveys to her 

 cell, and beginning at the bottom, with no small 

 care and skill, overlays the walls of the mansion, 

 destined for the habitation of her future progeny, 

 with this hanging, as singular as it is brilliant. 

 Sometimes this covering not only overlays the in- 

 terior of the cell, but also an extent of some lines 

 round its orifice. The bottom is rendered warm 

 by three or four coats of poppy leaf, and the sides 

 have never less than two. The little upholsterer, 

 having completed the hanging of her apartment, 

 next fills it with paste made of pollen and honey to 

 the height of seven or eight lines, and then, after 

 committing an egg to it, she closes its mouth with 

 earth so nicely, that it ceases to be distinguishable 

 from the adjoining soil ; but previous to this she 

 pushes downwards the poppy lining till it com- 

 pletely 



