NATURAL HISTORY. 69 



will sometimes add earth that is soft to its 

 grains of sand, and when the lump is about 

 the size of a small shot, it takes it up and flies 

 away with it, to work it into the wall." 



" Does it always use sand, Uncle Philip ?" 



" Not always : sometimes it takes wet clay, 

 and will dig into a bank of clay baked hard 

 by the sun on the outside, so as to get that 

 which is wet. 



" Mr. Rennie, a gentleman in England who 

 is very fond of watching insects, and has found 

 out a great many curious things about them, 

 has given an account of some of these bees 

 which he noticed at work. Every one was 

 carrying out of a hole in the clay-bank a small 

 lump of clay ; and on catching one of them, he 

 found that this lump was wetter than the clay 

 in the hole, so that the bee had moistened it, 

 and worked it together, to make it stick like 

 good mortar. These lumps too were larger 

 than a shot ; they were as large as a garden- 

 pea." 



" How long did it take them to work up the 

 lump?" 



"About half a minute, Mr. Rennie says. 

 He watched one of these little creatures, and 

 found that she was building on the inside 



