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Proceedings 17 
somewhat pitcher-shaped, rough on the outside, but very 
smooth inside. They are nearly half an inch long, and 
are closed bya sort of lid at the top. Five or six of such 
cells are said to be found in each nest, which is usually 
placed at the roots of tufts of grass, though occasionally 
underground. Smith also describes the habits of O. 
parietina, a species which does not occur in the south 
of England. According to him, the bee attaches its cells 
to the under side of a stone lying in such a way on the 
ground as to have a hollow space beneath. A stone pre- 
sented to the British Museum, and measuring ten inches 
by six inches, had no fewer than 230 cocoons attached to 
it. Some of the bees did not emerge from these cells 
until three years later. O. dzcolor and O. aurulenta often 
construct their cells in empty snail-shells, and the same 
habit has been recorded of O. rufa. When using small 
shells, such as Helix nemoralis, or H. hortensis, the cells 
are placed singly, one on the other, until the shell is full ; 
but in larger shells such as 4. fomatia, two or more cells 
are placed side by side. At the foot of sea-side cliffs O. 
aurulenta will sometimes use empty whelk-shells. 
There is a very interesting account by Mr. V. R. Perkins, 
in the “Entomologists Monthly Magazine” for 1891, of his 
observations of O. dicolor. He noticed them often collect- 
ing small dry sticks and bents, and for some years he was 
puzzled to think what the bees did with them. One day, 
however, crawling on his hands and knees where the 
Osmias were flitting about a sunny bank, he saw one of 
the bees fly up from a little pile of these bents; and on 
examination, he found under it a snail-shell full of the cells 
of the Osmia. These mounds he describes as being like 
4 miniature nests of the Wood Ant, from four to six inches 
____in circumference, and about two inches high. They pro- 
___ bably serve to protect the shell and its contents from the 
a effects of the weather, and also to hide it from birds and 
other enemies. 
A continental Osmia, O. papaveris, is in the habit of 
i. cutting pieces from the petals of the scarlet poppy to line 
___ its cells with, whence it gets its name of the Poppy Bee. 
