The Mason-Wasps 



But the spacious domain under the tiles 

 is not within the reach of all: sheds with 

 free access and the proper sunny aspect are 

 pretty rare. These sites fall only to for- 

 tune's favourites. Where will the others 

 take up their quarters? More or less 

 anywhere. Without leaving the house in 

 which I live, I can enumerate stone, wood, 

 glass, metal, paint and mortar as forming 

 the foundation of the nests. The green- 

 house with its furnace heat in the summer 

 and its bright light, equalling that outside, 

 is fairly well-frequented. The Mason-bee 

 hardly ever fails to build there each year, 

 in squads of a few dozen, now on the glass 

 panes, now on the iron bars of the frame- 

 work. Other little swarms settle in the 

 window-embrasures, under the projecting 

 ledge of the front-door or in the cranny be- 

 tween the wall and an open shutter. Yet 

 others, being perhaps of a morose dispo- 

 sition, flee society and prefer to work in 

 solitude, one in the inside of a lock or of a 

 pipe intended to carry the rain-water from 

 the leads; another in the mouldings of the 

 doors and windows or in the crude orna- 

 mentation of the stonework. In short, the 

 house is made use of all round, provided 

 that the shelter be an out-of-door one; for 

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