Bramble-bees and Others 



self arguing. My reasoning is too fine for 

 dull wits. I will pass on and come to the 

 brutal fact, the real sledge-hammer blow. 



Towards the end of the Bee's operations, 

 in the first week of June, the last acts of the 

 Three-horned Osmia become so exceptionally 

 interesting that I made her the object of re- 

 doubled observation. The swarm at this time 

 is greatly reduced in numbers. I have still 

 some thirty laggards, who continue very busy, 

 though their work is in vain. I see some very 

 conscientiously stopping up the entrance to a 

 tube or a Snail-shell in which they have laid 

 nothing at all. Others are closing the home 

 after only building a few partitions, or even 

 mere attempts at partitions. Some are pla- 

 cing at the back of a new gallery a pinch of 

 pollen which will benefit nobody and then 

 shutting up the house with an earthen stop- 

 per as thick, as carefully made as though the 

 safety of a family depended on it. Born a 

 worker, the Osmia must die working. When 

 her ovaries are exhausted, she spends the re- 

 mainder of her strength on useless works : 

 partitions, plugs, pollen-heaps, all destined to 

 be left unemployed. The little animal ma- 

 chine cannot bring itself to be inactive even 



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