220 



purse, and sits on her eggs with amazing assiduity. 

 Another, to conclude, encloses hei's in tuo or three 

 little silk balls, which she suspends by threads; but has 

 the precaution to hang before, at a small distance, a 

 little bunch of dry leaves, to conceal them from the in- 

 spection of the curious. 



5. Divers species of solitary flies are not less to be 

 admired, as well for their foresight in amassing provi- 

 sions for their little ones, as for the art displayed by 

 them in them the nests they prepare for their reception. 

 The mason bee, so called because like us, she under- 

 stands the iirt of building, performs such works in ma- 

 sonry, as one would imagine must greatly surpass the 

 strength of a fly. With sand, collected grain by grain, 

 and glued together with a kind of cement much pre- 

 ferable to ours, she erects a house for her family : a very 

 simple one indeed, but extremely solid and commodious. 

 It is divided within info several chambers or cabins, on 

 the back of each other, without any communication be- 

 tween them. One general foldage, a wall of enclo- 

 sure comprehends them all, and leaves no opening with- 

 out. This wall must be broke before the apartments 

 can be seen, and it is found to be as hard as a stone. 

 These nests are very common on the fronts of houses : 

 they there resemble little oval hillocks, of a different 

 grey from that of the stone. The fly that is the ar- 

 chitect of these buildings deposits an egg in each cham- 

 ber, and shuts up in it at the same a stock of wax or 

 paste, which is the nourishment appropriated to her 

 young. 



Another fly, which may be called the carpenter * bee, 

 because she works in wood, likewise builds apartments 

 for her family, but in a different taste from that of the 

 mason. Sometimes she distributes them into stages; 

 sometimes disposes them in a row. Cielings or parti- 

 tions, artfully made, separate all these stages or chain - 



* The wood-piercing bee. 



