NATURAE HISTORY. 67 



" Will you have the goodness, Uncle Philip, 

 to tell us what it meant ?" 



" Very willingly, boys. What you saw I 

 presume were bees. You remember that I 

 told you there were several kinds of bees ; 

 and this one is called the mason-bee. This 

 kind builds his nest of mortar, and was there- 

 fore called the mason-bee by Mr. Reaumur 

 first, I believe." 



"Where does it get the mortar, Uncle 

 Philip ?" 



" It makes it, boys. This kind of bee may 

 be seen flying about, picking up sand, grain 

 by grain, putting it into a heap, gluing them 

 together with a sort of gum out of her own 

 mouth, and building with them a foundation 

 for her house. This little workman commonly 

 builds against the side of a wall between two 

 bricks where the mortar has fallen out ; and 

 if you should see one of the nests, it appears 

 exactly like a lump of dry mud which has 

 been thrown wet upon the wall out of a cart- 

 rut : but when you examine it closely, you 

 may see a great many small stones in it, more 

 than is common in mud : a hundred people, 

 though, might pass by it, and never think it 

 was any thing more than a lump of dirt, which 



