FAMILItE. (Apis. **. c. 2.. 91.) 163 



that compose it. If, by any accident, their labour 

 is interrupted or their edifice deranged, it is 

 astonishing with what persevering patience they 

 set themselves to put all things again to rights. 



" The mode in which they cut the pieces of 

 Jeaf, of which their nests are made, deserves par-r 

 ticular notice. Nothing can be more expeditious ; 

 they are not longer about it than we should be with 

 a pair of scissars. When one of these bees selects 

 a rose bush with this view, she does not immedi- 

 ately alight upon it, but keeps hovering over, and 

 flying round ' it, for some moments, as if recon- 

 noitring the ground to discover the spot best 

 adapted to her purpose. When she has chosen a 

 leaf, she alights upon it, sometimes taking her 

 station on its upper surface, sometimes underneath 

 itj and at others upon its edge, so that the margin 

 passes between her legs. Her first attack, which 

 is generally made the moment she alights, is usu- 

 ally near the footstalk, her head being turned to- 

 wards the apex. Now and then, hovv'cver, she 

 places herself near the apex, facing the footstalk. 

 As soon as she has made a beginning, she con- 

 tinues cutting, with her strong maxillae, without 

 intermission, till she has finished her work. As 

 she proceeds, she keeps the margin of the detached 

 part between her legs, those of one side being above 

 and the other below it, so that the section keeps 

 giving way to her, and does not interrupt her pro- 

 gress. She makes her incision in a cun'e line, 

 M 3 approach- 



