OF THE INTELLIGENCE AND OF INSTINCT. 



171 



nest, moreover, looks downwards, so that the bird can only 

 enter from below, and flying. It has two chambers, one for 

 the male, the other for the female. Another nest equally 

 curious is that of the Sylvia sutoria (Tailor Bird), which con- 

 verts the cotton of the cotton-tree into threads, and with these 

 sews together the leaves so as to form a nest. 



Even some fishes construct a kind of coarse nest, in which 

 they deposit their ova ; but it is amongst insects that the 

 constructive power is the most remarkable ; and to this we 

 shall return in describing the nests of bees and wasps, and 

 we shall therefore conclude this brief sketch by a single 

 example taken from the class of solitary insects. 



The Xylocopa violacea (Violet Carpenter Bee) is allied to 

 the family of bees. This animal (Fig. 123) hollows out 

 in the timber of the hedge-rows, of fruit-trees, and of vine 

 poles, oval holes, which at first advance obliquely, then curve 



Fig. 125, ^est of the Goldfinch. 



downwards, and descend vertically for a foot or more : in 

 thus tunnelling the wood, the xylocopa takes care to preserve 

 and collect together the debris, with which it afterwards 

 constructs partitions, thus forming cells for lodging the larvae 



