16,1 FAMILIiE. [Apis. **. c. 2, «.) 



them so as to form a convex termination : when 

 a cell is formed in this manner, her next care is to 

 fill it with honey and pollen, which make a rose- 

 coloured paste or conserve {p) : when it is filled to 

 within about half a line of the orifice, she deposits 

 her Qgg in it, and closes it with three pieces of 

 leaf (^), which are so accurately circular, that a 

 pair of compasses could not define their margin 

 with more ttuth t these coincide exactly with the 

 walls of the cylindrical cell, and are retained in 

 their situation by no gluten, but merely by the 

 nicety of their adaptation. After this covering is 

 fitted in, there remains still a concavity which re- 

 ceives the convex end of the succeeding cell. In 

 this manner the patient and indefatigable little 

 animal proceeds, till she has completed her cylin- 

 der of six or seven cells. This cylinder is coated 

 externally by other pieces of leaf of larger dimen- 

 sions than those used in making the cells, and of a 

 different form, for they are nearly oval ; those at 

 the ends are bent inwards, to cover each extremity. 

 These nests are usuallv made in fistular passages, 

 which these indefatigable creatures bore under 

 ground, in a horizontal direction : their diameter 

 is exactly that of the cylinder, to which indeed 

 they give its form, and their bend to the pieces 



(/)) They usually collect their honey and pollen from the 

 thistles and Onopordum, tlie pollen of which is rose-coloured, K, 



{{[) I have taken nine of tiiese covers from the mouth of a 

 cell of A, ligniseca, K. 



that 



