124 PEPACTON 



in rails and posts. But the one with the bronze 

 or copper bottom builds under a stone. I discov- 

 ered its nest one day in this wise : I was lying upon 

 the ground in a field, watching a line of honey-bees 

 to the woods, when my attention was arrested by 

 one of these native bees flying about me in a curi- 

 ous, inquiring way. When it returned the third 

 time, I said, "That bee wants something of me," 

 which proved to be the case, for I was lying upon 

 the entrance to its nest. On my getting up, it 

 alighted and crawled quickly home. I turned over 

 the stone, which was less than a foot across, when 

 the nest was partially exposed. It consisted of 

 four cells, built in succession in a little tunnel that 

 had been excavated in the ground. The cells, which 

 were about three quarters of an inch long and half 

 as far through, were made of sections cut from the 

 leaf of the maple, cut with the mandibles of the 

 bee, which work precisely like shears. I have seen 

 the bee at work cutting out these pieces. She 

 moves through the leaf like the hand of the tailor 

 through a piece of cloth. When the pattern is 

 detached she rolls it up, and, embracing it with her 

 legs, flies home with it, often appearing to have a 

 bundle disproportionately large. Each cell is made 

 up of a dozen or more pieces : the larger ones, those 

 that form its walls, like the walls of a paper bag, 

 are oblong, and are turned down at one end, so as 

 to form the bottom; not one thickness of leaf 

 merely, but three or four thicknesses, each fragment 

 of leaf lapping over another. When the cell is 



