11 EIBE-TUISTORY OF ZOMBUS 19 
measuring about an inch from side to side but only 
about five-eighths of an inch from top to bottom, 
with an entrance at the side just large enough for 
her to pass in and out. 
In the centre of the floor of this cavity she forms 
a little lump of pollen-paste, consisting of pellets 
made of pollen moistened with honey that she has 
collected on the shanks (tibiz) of her hind legs. 
These she moulds with her jaws into a compact 

Z honey pop 
pollen and eggs 
Fic. 3.—Diagram of commencing Nest. 
mass, fastening it to the floor. Upon the top of 
this lump of pollen she builds with her jaws a circular 
wall of wax, and in the little cell so formed she lays 
her first batch of eggs, sealing it over with wax by 
closing in the top of the wall with her jaws as soon 
as the eggs have been laid. The whole structure is 
about the size of a pea.’ 
The method of collecting the pollen employed by 
the humble-bee and honey-bee, and the apparatus 
on the legs for carrying it out, are very wonderful 
and interesting; and as an essential part of the 
1 J think it likely that the eggs are sometimes laid in two lots, separated by 
an interval of a day ortwo. Their number varies from 8 to 16; generally it 
is about 12. 
