Bramble-bees and Others 



ture potently-gifted, even though It be for a 

 poor little task, the scooping up of two or 

 three drops of glue. 



Things are not quite so satisfactory with 

 the second Resln-bee of the Snail-shells, 

 A. bellicosum. I find that she has three 

 teeth to her mandibles. Still, they are slight 

 and project very little. Let us say that this 

 does not count, even though the work is 

 exactly the same. With A. qiiadrilohiim 

 the whole thing breaks down. She, the 

 queen of Resin-bees; she, who collects a lump 

 of mastic the size of one's fist, enough to 

 subdivide hundreds of her kinswomen's Snall- 

 shells: well, she, by way of a spoon, carries a 

 rake! On the wide edges of her mandibles 

 stand four teeth, as long and pointed as those 

 of the most zealous cotton-gleaner. A. 

 florentinum, that mighty manufacturer of 

 cotton-goods, can hardly rival her In re- 

 spect of combing-tools. And nevertheless, 

 with her toothed Implement, a sort of saw, 

 the Resin-bee collects her great heap of pitch, 

 load by load; and the material Is carried not 

 rigid, but sticky, half-fluid, so that it may 

 amalgamate with the previous lots and be 

 fashioned Into cells. 



330 



