INSTINCT AND INTELLIGENCE. 



begins the process of boring. First proceeding obliquely down- 

 wards, she soon points her course in a direction parallel with the 



sides of the wood, and at length, 

 with unwearied exertion, forms a 

 cylindrical hole or tunnel, not less 

 than twelve or fifteen inches long 

 and half an inch broad. Some- 

 times, where the diameter will 

 admit of it, three or four of these 

 pipes, nearly parallel with each 

 other, are bored in the same piece. 

 Herculean as this task, which 

 is the labour of several days, 

 appears, it is but a small part of 

 what our industrious bee cheerfully 

 undertakes. As yet she has com- 

 pleted but the shell of the destined 

 habitation of her offspring ; each of which, to the number of ten 

 or twelve, will require a separate and distinct'apartment. How, 

 you will ask, is she to form these ? With what materials can she 

 construct the floors and ceilings ? Why, truly GOD " doth instruct 

 her to discretion and doth teach her." 



Fig. 18. Nest of the Carpenter Bee, 



144 



