MINERS 37 



feet, and entering as if to press down and consolidate 

 the mass, flying once or twice to an adjoining fir- 

 tree, possibly to procure resin for agglutinating the 

 whole. Having filled the burrow to the level of 

 the surrounding earth so as to conceal the entrance, 

 it took two fir-leaves lying at hand, and placed 

 them near the orifice, as if to mark the place." 



Mr. and Mrs. Peckham have given us most 

 interesting accounts of two American species of 

 Ammofhila — A. urnalis and A. gracilis — agreeing in 

 the main with Fabre's observations of A. hirsuta 

 and A. sabulosa, but, of course, with variations 

 which mark the specific difference of the insects. 

 One individual urnalis whose behaviour they watched 

 was so precise in all she did that we cannot refrain 

 from quoting part of their account : 



" We remember her as the most fastidious and 

 perfect little worker of the whole season, so nice 

 was she in her adaptation of means to ends, so busy 

 and contented in her labour of love, and so pretty 

 in her pride over the completed work. In filling 

 up her nest she put her head down into it and 

 bit away the loose earth from the sides, letting 

 it fall to the bottom of the burrow, and then, 

 after a quantity had accumulated, jammed it down 

 with her head. Earth was then brought from the 

 outside and pressed in, and then more was bitten 

 from the sides. When, at last, the filling was level 

 with the ground, she brought a quantity of fine 

 grains of dirt to the spot, and picking up a small 

 pebble in her mandibles, used it as a hammer in 



