NATURALISf's CAfilNEf; 



Leaf-cutting bee's nest. 



fills it with paste, made of pollen and honey, to 

 the height of seven or eight lines ; and, after de- 

 positing an egg, she pushes down the poppy- 

 Jining till it completely covers the cell, and then 

 closes up its mouth with earth so nicely as to ren- 

 der it not distinguishable from the adjoining soil. 

 The leaf-cutting bees construct cylindrical 

 nests, of the leaves of the rose and other trees, 

 xvhich are sometimes of the length of six inches, 

 and generally consist of six or seven cells, each 

 shaped like a thimble. They are formed with 

 the convex end of one fitting into the open 

 end of another. The portions of leaf of which 

 they are made are not glued together, nor are 

 they any otherwise fastened than in the nicety of 

 their adjustment to each other; and yet they do 

 not admit the liquid honey to drain through 

 them. The interior surface of each cell consists 

 of three pieces of leaf, of equal size, narrow 

 at one end, but gradually widening to the 

 other, where the width equals half the length* 

 One side of each of these pieces is the serrated 

 margin of the leaf from which it was cut. In 

 forming the cell, the pieces of leaf are made to 

 lap one over the other (the serrated side always 

 outermost) till a tube is thus formed coated with 

 three, four, or more layers. In coating these 

 tubes, the provident little animal is careful to lay 

 the middle of each piece of leaf over the margins 

 of others, so as by this means both to cover and 

 strengthen the junctions. At the closed or nar- 



