NATURE'S CRAFTSMEN 



ounce, with water. This preparation found the bottom 

 of the deepest burrows and searched out the sidings, 

 with their brood-cells. The liquid hardened in a day 

 or less, giving a nearly accurate cast of the bees' entire 

 domicile. But even with this admirable contrivance 

 there was enormous labor involved in digging the neces- 

 sary trenches — in one case over five feet deep — and their 

 approaches of several feet to the casts. As these were 

 fragile by reason of their small size, there was not only 

 much work, but great pains and patience, required in 

 getting them out. But this is the price that every natu- 

 ralist pays, and gladly, for every real success. 



A curious variation in the habit to which the maternal 

 impulse urges insects is seen in solitary bees of the 

 genus Anthridium. Their brooding-cells are small de- 

 tached cylinders of the general type, but are protected 

 in a way that strikes one as more in harmony with our 

 notions of proper bee behavior. We are apt to asso- 

 ciate bees with flowers and plants; and, although that 

 fancy has been shaken somewhat by the facts of their his- 

 tory, it still seems natural that they should go to plants 

 and flowers for household furnishing. Thus we quite 

 approve the industry of the mother Anthridium, who 

 finds in the vegetable world an ample storehouse for 

 her babies' needs. 



The older entomologists knew how she gathered the 

 down from woolly plants and blanketed there-with her 

 brooding-cells. We can still share the pleasure with 

 which White, of Selborne, as told in his dehcious notes 

 on natural life, watched the address with which An- 

 thridium stripped off the down, running from the top 

 to the bottom of the branch and shaving it bare with 

 the dexterity of a hoop -shaver. We can catch up 



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