Rationing According to Sex 



all well kept; each head of game, large or 

 small, must always count as one in her eyes. 



Put on my guard, I look to see whether 

 the honey-gathering Bees have a double 

 service, like the game-hunting Wasps'. I 

 estimate the amount of honeyed paste; I 

 gauge the cups intended to contain it. In 

 many cases the result resembles the first ob- 

 tained: the abundance of provisions varies 

 from one cell to another. Certain Osmiae ^ 

 (O. cornuta and O. tricornis) feed their 

 larvae on a heap of pollen-dust moistened in 

 the middle with a very little disgorged honey. 

 One of these heaps may be three or four 

 times the size of some other In the same 

 group of cells. If I detach from its pebble 

 the nest of the Mason-bee, the Challcodoma 

 of the Walls, I see cells of large capacity, 

 sumptuously provisioned; close beside these 

 I see others, of less capacity, with victuals 

 parsimoniously allotted. The fact is ge- 

 neral ; and it is right that we should ask our- 

 selves the reason for these marked differ- 

 ences in the relative quantity of foodstuffs 

 and for these unequal rations. 



I at last began to suspect that this is first 

 and foremost a question of sex. In many 



1 Cf. Bramble-bees and Others: passim; and, in par- 

 ticular, chaps, iii. to v. — Translator's Note. 

 221 



