The Osmiae 



reeds and the paper tubes likewise do wonder- 

 fully. The number provided is too small; 

 and I hasten to increase it. Snail-shells are 

 recognized as excellent abodes, though de- 

 prived of the shelter of the stone-heap; old 

 Chalicodoma-nests, down to those of the 

 Chalicodoma of the Shrubs,^ whose cells are 

 so small, are eagerly occupied. The late- 

 comers, finding nothing else free, go and set- 

 tle in the locks of my table-drawers. There 

 are daring ones who make their way into half- 

 open boxes containing ends of glass tubes in 

 which I have stored my most recent acquisi- 

 tions: grubs, pupae and cocoons of all kinds, 

 whose evolution I wished to study. When- 

 ever these receptacles have an atom of free 

 space, they claim the right to build there, 

 whereas I formally oppose the claim. I 

 hardly reckoned on such a success, which 

 obliges me to put some order into the Inva- 

 sion with which I am threatened. I seal up 

 the locks, I shut my boxes, I close my various 

 receptacles for old nests. In short I remove 

 from the building-yard any retreat of which 

 I do not approve. And now, O my Osmiae, 

 I leave you a free field ! 



'Cf. The Maion-becs: chaps, iv. and x. — Translator's 

 Note. 



71 



