CARPENTERS AND WOOD- WORKERS 107 



a bramble-stem, and they comment upon the con- 

 trast all these Crabros offer in their quiet and 

 calm, even stately, methods of working to the 

 restless and fussy ways of Pompilus and Ammo-phila, 

 They found that this species at least works all 

 through the night. One individual was kept under 

 close observation, and they found that she worked 

 continuously at her carpentry for forty-two hours 

 on end. The only interval she allowed herself for 

 rest during that long period was one of ten minutes 

 when she was about half-way through her task. 



Her tunnel was found to be thirty-nine centi- 

 metres ( = 15^ inches) in length, with a width of 

 about three and a half millimetres. This would be 

 divided by partitions into ten or twelve cells. 

 Unfortunately, after finishing her forty-two hours' 

 spell of carpentry, and closing up one cell with 

 its eggs and stores, she must have met with some 

 mishap on her hunting expedition, for she never 

 came back to complete her nest. It was impossible 

 to think that anything short of loss of life had 

 kept her from it. With insectivorous birds about, 

 this, alas ! is only too common an end to such 

 enterprises. 



Some species of Odynerus differ from those 

 already described under the head of Miners by 

 making burrows in bramble-stems and the like. 

 Among these are three of our native species — 0. 

 melanocephalus and O. l^evipes which adopt bramble- 

 stems, and 0. trifasciatus which prefers old palings. 

 The North American species, 0. conformis and 



