The Mason-Wasps 



still continuing my useless investigations, 

 when at last chance, which favours the per- 

 severing, thrice compensated me, under con- 

 ditions which I did not for a moment sus- 

 pect of being auspicious. 



The Serignan quarries are rich in accumu- 

 lations of broken stones, refuse that has 

 lain piled up there for centuries. These 

 stone-heaps are the refuge of the Field- 

 mouse, who, on a mattress of dried grass, 

 crunches the almonds, olive-stones and 

 acorns which he picks up all around and 

 varies this farinaceous diet with Snails, 

 whose empty shells lie packed under some 

 flat stone. Different Bees and Wasps 

 Osmiae, Anthidia, Odyneri pick out 

 shells to suit them from the heap and build 

 their cells in the spiral. My search for 

 these treasures makes me turn over a few 

 cubic yards of broken stones every year. 



Three times, when engaged upon this 

 task, I came upon the Pelopasus' work. 

 Two nests were placed deep down in the 

 heap, against blocks hardly bigger than a 

 man's two fists; the third was fixed to the 

 lower surface of a large flat stone, forming 

 a canopy above the ground. These three 

 nests, though subject to all the changes of 

 the weather, contained nothing more than 

 150 



