Bramble-bees and Others 



left behind him, under the overhanging stones, 

 mixed up with the remains of other victuals, 

 an assortment of empty shells, sometimes 

 plentiful enough to remind me of the heap of 

 Snails which, cooked with spinach and eaten 

 country-fashion on Christmas Eve, are flung 

 away next day by the housewife. This gives 

 the Three-horned Osmia a handsome collec- 

 tion of tenements; and she does not fail to 

 profit by them. Then again, even if the Field- 

 mouse's conchological museum be lacking, the 

 same broken stones serve as a refuge for 

 Garden Snails who come to live there and end 

 by dying there. When we see Three-horned 

 Osmlae enter the crevices of old walls and of 

 stone-heaps, there is no doubt about their oc- 

 cupation : they are getting free lodgings out 

 of the old Snail-shells of those labyrinths. 



The Horned Osmia, who is less common, 

 might easily also be less ingenious, that is to 

 say, less rich in varieties of houses. She 

 seems to scorn empty shells. The only homes 

 that I know her to inhabit are the reeds of 

 the hurdles and the deserted cells of the 

 Masked Anthophora. 



All the other Osmiae whose method of nest- 

 building I know work with green putty, a 



58 



