BURROWING AND CARPENTER BEES 



shaped, and hollow withm, like one's hands; thus the 

 bee can squeeze together the pellets of wood cut out by 

 the jaws, as the boy presses a snowball, in order to form 

 the hard, circular partitions between the cells. 



Their legs are armed with stiff clumps of hairs that 

 serve as brushes or whisks to clean out the sawdust 

 from the tunnel. These hairs also form the well- 

 known "bee basket," in which the pollen is gathered 

 and carried to the cells to feed the hungry little larvae 

 or heelings when they are hatched from the egg. On 

 the whole. Dame Nature has given Xylocopa a rather 

 snug outfit for her work, and, moreover, has taught her 

 how to use it well. 



The home of the carpenter bee is, for the most part, 

 in the country or in the rural sections. But sometimes 

 an adventurer wanders into the city and sets up house- 

 keeping in crowded streets. One day a carpenter — 

 carpenter man, not bee! — rang the door-bell of my 

 manse, and handed in a bit of pine-wood, which he said, 

 his "boss had sent to the doctor, knowing that he was 

 fond of 'bugs '!" It was a chipping from a church that 

 the builder was repairing, in the midst of which was a 

 neatly bored nest of a carpenter bee. It had been slit 

 open by the workmen, just enough to show a row of 

 bright, brand-new young carpenters wedged within their 

 cells and separated by the wheel - shaped partitions. 

 There were five of them, pretty fellows, just ready to 

 get out of their cradles. Thus, whether city-bred or 

 country-bred, these famous insect wood-workers have 

 the same manner and skill. 



Carpenter bees have many natural enemies. Boys 

 kill them, which is poor business, since the insects do 

 little harm. It would be better to observe what they 

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