276 HOUSE, GARDEN, AND FIELD 



enter them and lay their own eggs in the cells. The larvae 

 hatched from these eggs get the start of the rightful owners, 

 and it is not the offspring of the industrious burrowing 

 bee but of the cuckoo-bee which ultimately enjoys the 

 store of food. Though the cuckoo-bee is quite unlike an 

 Andraena, it is allowed to enter the burrow without opposi- 

 tion, and the Andraena never learns the fate of the brood 

 which she left to all appearance well provided for. 



(b) THE LEAF-CUTTING BEE. 



I will next describe the manoeuvres of another solitary 

 bee which I have lately had an opportunity of studying. 

 We not unfrequently find that the leaves of trees and 

 shrubs in our gardens have been mutilated in a singular 

 way. Oval or circular pieces have been removed by clean 

 cuts, which look as if they had been made with a pair of 

 scissors. What creature cuts bits out of the leaves, and 

 how is the cut made ? A bright summer day given up to 

 the inquiry will probably answer these questions. You 

 will, if fortunate, see a bee, very like a hive-bee but rather 

 stouter, hover about the tree, settle on a leaf, and cut a 

 piece out with her jaws. While cutting, the bee clings to 

 the piece which is to be detached ; she cuts decisively 

 and rapidly, doubling the fragment between her legs as 

 she proceeds, and using her wings when the support begins 

 to fail. Then she flies off, carrying the piece, which may 

 be oval and half an inch long, or circular and a quarter of 

 an inch in diameter. The bee will probably come back 

 again and again, get more bits of leaf, and fly away with 

 them. If your garden is of the modest dimensions common 

 in cities, you will be probably unable to see where the 

 pieces of leaf are taken to, but in a large garden you may 

 find it possible to follow the bee and see her enter a hole, 

 either in the ground, or in a wall, or in a tree- trunk. Then 

 you will be able to learn something more. After many 

 journeys, each resulting in the acquisition of a single 

 bit of leaf, the bee changes her occupation, her journeys 



