( xxxi ) 



them in rapidly one after another ; with each one she would 

 alight on the top of the mound, then look round, walk over 

 it, and with her jaws push one of the ends into the heap 

 where she wanted it to remain, and so fix it; as soon as she 

 was satisfied with its position off she went for another, brought 

 it in, and did exactly the same, every bent was put in its 

 proper place, and she never laid one simply down on the top 

 while I watched her. 



" These nests very much resemble those of Formica rufa 

 in miniature, they are from four to six inches round the 

 bottom, and are from two to three inches high, so that they 

 are very easily detected when you once know what they are, 

 and the labour spent upon them must be very great, for there 

 are hundreds of bents in each, and each one is brought and 

 added separately. I found some dozen or more,, all within a 

 short distance, and three so close together that I could watch 

 the proceedings of them all at the same time." 



Up to the present time there had been no record of the 

 manner in which the bee obtains the pieces of grass — by picking 

 up loose stems or by cutting them off. 



Mr. V. R. Perkins considered that the object of the instinct 

 was to hide the nest " both from the sun's rays, and from any 

 birds, mice, insects, or other enemies that might chance to 

 come across it." Prof. Poulton hoped that naturalists would 

 keep a watch on such nests together with others from which 

 the covering had been removed. In this way it might be 

 possible to determine the meaning of the adaptation and the 

 enemies against which it was directed. Dr. Perkins believed 

 that 0. tricolor was the only British species which hides the 

 shell it uses. 



It was of great interest to bring together, so far as possible, 

 all that is known about bees using old snail-shells ; and the 

 Rev. F. D. Morice had kindly selected from his collection 

 nearly all the species in which he had been able to find records 

 of the instinct. These bees, brought for exhibition to the 

 meeting, were the species in the following alphabetical list 

 whose names are immediately followed by the locality and 

 date at which they were captured by the ex-President. The 

 notes of the following Hymenopterists were indicated by their 



