BEES* NESTS. 



munity as the constructors of this beautiful flower- 

 like nest must have been not having formed above 

 eighteen cells should have had the means of ex- 

 pelling the original proprietors, or of so offending 

 them as to occasion the voluntary abandonment of 

 their labour and home. But the forcible seizure 

 of the rights of another seldom prospers : these 

 usurpers, having constructed their edifice, deserted 

 it in their turn, and never made use of their cells. 

 It differed from that above noticed, by being of a 

 a more globular form ; and instead of one hood 

 covering the inner envelope of the cells, it had five, 

 not attached, but surrounding each other, having 

 spaces between, equal in the whole to a diameter 

 of two inches. The inner egg-shaped cup was 

 shorter the first hood covering it entirely, and 

 forming the entrance; the others gradually becom- 

 ing less extended, as the petal of a rose appears 

 when in its perfect beauty. This nest is not, I 

 apprehend, the same as that described by Reaumur 

 his having two ranges of many small cells 

 whereas ours, though perfectly formed, had only 

 one, and those in the centre nearly as large and 

 deep as the compartments of the comb on which it 

 was fixed. I think Messrs. Kirby and Spence 

 mention having once seen a similar production, but 

 it probably is of unusual occurrence in England. 

 (See Plate 6, Fig. 1.) 



August 2. Cut out this morning, from an old 

 oaken rail, the nest of the carpenter bee (Megach. 

 centuncularis) a curious receptacle, well known to 



