in HERMIT HOMES Si 



general covering, composed of coarser grains of 

 sand than those hitherto entering into the composi- 

 tion. One more provision must be made for the well- 

 being of the precious sojourners. A crevice that was 

 left open from each cell to the exterior surface when 

 the final wall was added is now stopped up with 

 rather soft sand, easily penetrated by the feeble jaws 

 of the young. 



These bees appear to keep a sharp look-out for the 

 ruins of any last year's nests that afford possibility of 

 repair, and re-making as good as new. Finding an old 

 home they go vigorously to work upon it ; the cells 

 are swept clean of all debris that has accumulated 

 the skins of larvae, cocoons, and what not any holes 

 and imperfections are attended to, and the chambers 

 victualled and closed up. Laziness even brings 

 the masons to dishonesty. They will unlawfully 

 intrude into a house in course of erection, the 

 possession of another, and fight desperately to re- 

 tain the prize. Some Osmiae adopt the simple and 

 less onerous plan as compared with the labours of 

 Chalicodoma of placing their cells in decaying wood, 

 or in the stems of the blackberry, the rose, and other 

 shrubs, or within straws, as the industrious and tiny 

 Chelostomes. One species merely attaches a number 

 of balls of pollen, each with an egg, to the under sur- 

 face of some flat stone. The larvae when full-fed spin 

 their cocoons on the spots which the pollen balls pre- 

 viously occupied. Osmia bicolor, a species indigenous 

 to southern Europe and found in England, utilises 

 abandoned shells of garden snails as ready-made 

 burrows. Strangely enough, the last laid eggs, in the 



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