HYMENOPTERA. ACULEATA, 233 



to mention the more elaborate instrument provided for 

 the chief of Bee architects, the working Hive Bee. 



The legs (fig. 57, 3, p. 222), and indeed the whole 

 of the body of the Cuckoo Bees, are unprovided with the 

 means of carrying pollen. It is true, as has already been 

 noticed, that there are some other Bees, not parasitic, 

 which also appear to be without these organs, but this is 

 one of the difficulties which constantly encounter the 

 student, and for which as yet no solution has been found. 



But there is another point in which the Bee and the 

 bird are alike in their care of their offspring. The 

 bird, much maligned in popular tradition, is yet an 

 attentive and affectionate mother. Not confining her 

 care for her young to finding for them the lodging which 

 nature has denied her the power to construct, nor limit- 

 ing her provision for them by the instinct which leads 

 her to place her eggs invariably in the nests of such 

 birds as feed their young with insects she herself looks 

 to their wants and brings them food. Lest this should 

 be difficult to believe against the common prejudice, 

 the testimony may be called of Dr. J. E. Gray, who for 

 a considerable time watched a Cuckoo daily engaged in 

 supplying her young with insects. 



This the little Bee does not achieve, but there is 

 reason to believe that she does what is equivalent. Mr. 

 Smith relates that he has frequently captured species of 

 these Bees with masses of clay attached to their posterior 

 tibia?, and his observations point to the conclusion that 

 the cunning little creature seizes the moment when a stored 

 cell is open and ready to receive the egg, that she then 

 deposits her own. and seals up the cell, while the owner of 

 the cell returning and finding either a sealed cell or a cell 

 with an egg in it, deserts it, and commences a fresh re- 



