314 INSECT LIFE xxti 



obstinate and imperious is the desire to harvest the 

 store securely. The unfinished cell that the bee refuses 

 to accept instead of her own complete one, with its 

 honey, is sometimes, as I have said, among several 

 containing paste and egg, and newly closed. In this 

 case I have seen, though not always, the following sight. 

 Having ascertained unmistakably that the unfinished 

 cell will not do, the bee begins to gnaw the cover of 

 a neighbouring one. With her saliva she softens a 

 spot in the mortar, and patiently digs away atom by 

 atom in the hard covering. A long half hour passes 

 before the tiny dimple excavated is big enough to 

 receive a pin's head. I waited. Then I got out of 

 patience, and, feeling sure that she wanted to open 

 the storehouse, I decided to help her and shorten the 

 labour. With the point of my knife I knocked off 

 the top ; but the crown of the cell came off too, and 

 its edge was a good deal broken. In my clumsiness 

 I had made a graceful vase into a wretched, shattered 

 pot. I was right ; the bee wanted to break open 

 the door, and without troubling herself as to the 

 fragmentary state of the orifice, she immediately 

 established herself in the cell opened to her. Many 

 times did she bring honey and pollen, though the 

 store was already complete. Finally, in this cell con- 

 taining an egg not hers she laid her own egg, and then 

 closed, as best she could, the shattered mouth. Thus 

 this bee, who was engaged in bringing food, neither 

 could nor would be baffled by the impossibility 

 brought about by me of continuing her work unless 

 she completed the cell which replaced hers. What she 

 was doing she persisted in doing in spite of obstacles. 

 She accomplished her task thoroughly, but in the 





