SOLITARY BEES AND WASPS. 173 



thimble, finely polished, of the colour of plaster- 

 of-Paris and stained in various places with yellow. 

 These insects have to work very hard scooping 

 out clay from one bank, obtaining chalk from 

 another, and sand from the path or elsewhere, 

 and then these materials have to be moistened 

 with their own saliva and made up into pellets 

 of a size that they are able to carry on the wing, 

 and so by slow degrees the walls of the cell are 

 built of these tiny bricks all glued together by 

 their own cement. Inside there are cells with 

 eggs and bee- food placed ready for the young 

 grub when it is hatched. 



MEGACHILE. 



(LARGE-LIPPED.) 



One day in summer I saw a bee go into a 

 little hole in the brickwork of our house, and 

 knowing it was probably making a nest, I 

 waited till it came out and then caught it with 

 my net that I might find out its species and then 



