NATURE'S CRAFTSMEN 



from clay or woody composite, and fasten them upon 

 various objects, as do the "potter" bees and the "cot- 

 toniers"; and, third, those that, hke bumblebees, are 

 opportunists, and avail themselves of some fitting natu- 

 ral site which they may adopt and in a measure adapt 

 for a domicile. Even such a popular grouping as this 

 will give one a general idea of the vast range of varied 

 habits which entomologists have undertaken to explore 

 and describe. 



Some most valuable observations of burrowmg bees 

 have lately been made by Professor J. B. Smith ^ on three 

 of our Brookcamp genera — Colletes, Andrena, and Au- 

 gochlora — which he studied in the pine-lands of New 

 Jersey. There he found the adults creeping from their 

 winter-quarters and beginning their work as early as 

 March 12th. Here, at this season (March 22, 1906), 

 with the snow lying deep upon the fallow fields in which 

 they gleaned last summer, the boldest bee pioneer 

 would not venture an ascent. As the Jersey pines are 

 also in the grip of Jack Frost, one may safely predict 

 that there are now no bees abroad even there. But it 

 was a favored year in which our naturalist made his 

 studies, and the burrowers broke from the ground 

 before the spring solstice. Such conditions supposed, 

 their life-record thus runs : 



At once the females begin to dig perpendicular bur- 

 rows into the compact sand and clay. A moundlet of 

 moist pellets gathers about every entrance, which, in 

 that sandy soil, soon dries and is blown away. Down, 

 down the burrower goes — a foot, eighteen inches, two 

 feet, twenty-eight inches! Then she bends her shaft 



* New York Entomological Society, Journal, 1901. 

 162 



