Ill 



HERMIT HOMES 



77 



closed with a circular plate. Though the mass is 

 made up of these fragments, it is almost flat and 

 solid, and exhibits the appearance of as many con- 

 centric circles as there have been pauses in the 

 work. It looks not unlike the annual zones in a 

 cross-section of a tree, or a slice cut through the 



FIG. 6. Nest of an Australian Carpenter Bee (Lesfis bombylans). 



middle of an onion. This, the ceiling of the first cell, 

 serves as the floor of the second. In the latter 

 apartment another egg is lodged and is furnished with 

 nourishment, and receives a ceiling. In this manner 

 the bee continues until the hole is divided into ten 

 or twelve chambers, each with its egg and pollen 



