The Mason-Wasps 



still continuing my useless investigations, 

 when at last chance, which favours the per- 

 severing, thrice compensated me, under con- 

 ditions which I did not for a moment sus- 

 pect of being auspicious. 



The Serignan quarries are rich in accumu- 

 lations of broken stones, refuse that has 

 lain piled up there for centuries. These 

 stone-heaps are the refuge of the Field- 

 mouse, who, on a mattress of dried grass, 

 crunches the almonds, olive-stones and 

 acorns which he picks up all around and 

 varies this farinaceous diet with Snails, 

 whose empty shells lie packed under some 

 flat stone. Different Bees and Wasps — 

 Osmiae, Anthidia, Odyneri — pick out 

 shells to suit them from the heap and build 

 their cells in the spiral. My search for 

 these treasures makes me turn over a few 

 cubic yards of broken stones every year. 



Three times, when engaged upon this 

 task, I came upon the Pelopaeus' work. 

 Two nests were placed deep down in the 

 heap, against blocks hardly bigger than a 

 man's two fists; the third was fixed to the 

 lower surface of a large flat stone, forming 

 a canopy above the ground. These three 

 nests, though subject to all the changes of 

 the weather, contained nothing more than 

 150 



