HABITATIONS OF INSECTS. 439 



stinct apartment. How, you will ask, is she to form 

 these ? With what materials can she construct the 

 floors and ceilings .^ Why truly God " doth instruct 

 her to discretion and doth teach her." In excavating 

 her tunnel she lias detached a large quantity of fibres, 

 which lie on the ground like a heap of saw-dust. This 

 material supplies all her wants. Having deposited an 

 egg at the bottom of the cylinder along with the requi- 

 site store of pollen and honey, she next, at the height 

 of about three quarters of an inch, (which is the depth 

 of each cell,) constructs of particles of the saw-dust 

 glued together, and also to the sides of the tunnel, what 

 may be called an annular stage or scaffolding. When 

 this is sufficiently hardened, its interior edge affords 

 support for a second ring of the same materials, and 

 thus the ceiling is gradually formed of these concentric 

 circles, till there remains only a small orifice in its cen- 

 tre, which is also closed with a circular mass of agglu- 

 tinated particles of saw-dust. When this partition, 

 which serves as the ceiling of the first cell and the floor- 

 ing of the second, is finished, it is about the thickness 

 of a crown-piece, and exhibits the appearance of as 

 many concentric circles as the animal has made pauses 

 in her labour. One cell being finished, she proceeds 

 to another, which she furnishes and completes in the 

 same manner, and so on until she has divided her whole 

 tunnel into ten or twelve apartments. 



Here, if you have followed me in this detail with the 

 interest which I wish it to inspire, a query will suggest 

 itself. It will strike you that such a laborious under- 

 taking as the constructing and furnishing these cells, 

 cannot be the work of one or even of two days. Con-* 



