0^ NATURAL HISTORY. 339 



that the air actually penetrated through this feemingly com- 

 pact mafon- vv^ork. 



As foon as the lirft cell is completed, the mafon-bee lays 

 the foundation of another. In the fame neft £he often con-* 

 flructs {even or eight cells, and fometimes only three or* 

 four. She places them near each other, but not in any re- 

 gular order. This induftrious animal, after all her cells are 

 conftru(fted, filled with provifions, and fealed, covers the 

 whole with an envelope of the fame mortar, which, when 

 dry, is as hard as a ftone. The neft now is commonly of an 

 oblong or roundifh figure, and the external cover is com- 

 pofed of coarfer fand than that of the cells. As the nefts 

 are almoft as durable as the walls on which they are placed, 

 they are often, in the following feafon, occupied and repair- 

 ed by a ftranger bee. Though inclofed with two hard walls, 

 when the fly emerges from the chryfalls ftate, it firft gnaws 

 with its teeth a pafTage through the wall that fealed up the 

 mouth of its cell, afterwards, with the fame inftruments, it 

 pierces the ftill ftronger and more compadl cover which in- 

 vefts the whole neft j at laft it efcapes into the open air, and, 

 if a female, in a ftiort time, conftru6h a neft of the fame 

 kind with that which the mother had made. To all thefe 

 fa6i:s, Du Hamel, Reaumur, and many other naturalifts of 

 credit and reputation, have been repeatedly eye-witnefTes. 



From the hardnefs of the materials with which the mafon- 

 bee conftru6ls her neft, from the induftry and dexterity fhe 

 employs to protect her progeny from enemies of every kind, 

 one Ihould naturally imagine that the young worms were in 

 perfe(Sl fafety, and that their caftle was impregnable. But, 

 notwithftanding all thefe favourable precautions, the young 

 of the mafon-bee are often devoured by the inftin61ive dex- 

 terity of certain fpecies of four-winged infe<5ls, diftinguiflied 

 by the name of ichneumon files . Thefe flies, when the ma-* 

 fon-bee has nearly completed a cell, and filled it with por- 



