The Cotton-bees 



made home. She never houses herself at her 

 own expense. Can we discover the reason ? 

 Let us first consult a few hard workers who 

 are artificers of their own dwellings. The 

 Anthophora digs corridors and cells in the 

 hanks hardened by the sun ; she does not erect, 

 she excavates; she does not build, she clears. 

 Toiling away with her mandibles, atom by 

 atom, she manages to contrive the passages 

 and chambers necessary for her eggs; and a 

 huge business it is. She has, in addition, to 

 polish and glaze the rough sides of her tun- 

 nels. What would happen if, after obtaining 

 a home by dint of long-continued toil, she had 

 next to line it with wadding, to gather the 

 fibrous down from cottony plants and to felt 

 it into bags suitable for the honey-paste? 

 The hard-working Bee would not be equal to 

 producing all these refinements. Her mining 

 calls for too great an expenditure of time and 

 strength to leave her the leisure for luxurious 

 furnishing. Chambers and corridors, there- 

 fore, will remain bare. 



The Carpenter-bee gives us the same 

 answer. When with her joiner's wimble she 

 has patiently bored the beam to a depth of 

 nine inches, would she be able to cut out and 



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