88 OTHER MATERNAL ARTIFICERS. 



close by, has been left untouched, as if too coarse and com- 

 mon for her purpose. 



The wool or down of pubescent plants, such as rose cam- 

 pion and cat's-ear, shaven off and "rolled up like a ribbon," 

 for convenient transport, is used by another rather common 

 species of solitary bee, to compose, not the lining or compart- 

 ments, but the exterior covering of her nest, which is plastered 

 within, and provided, like those before mentioned, with a store 

 of suitable provision. Naturalists are somewhat at variance 

 as to this insect's mode of operation, it having proved a mat- 

 ter of difficulty to trace her to her nest. 



Bee "carpenters" and bee "masons" all working with 

 maternal views, and named, like the " upholsterers," from the 

 character of their labours show no less ingenuity and perse- 

 verance in the employment of their more solid materials. The 

 masons construct their nests, some with sand, some with earth 

 and mingled chalk, some with earth and wood, uniting by 

 gluten their grains or fragments. 



The carpenters chisel their cells out of posts and palings a 

 little softened by decay ; and a nest of this description has 

 been found, when cut open by a curious observer,* to consist 

 of a tunnel excavated in the wood, and divided by thin par- 

 titions of clay into five or six compartments, each with its 

 supply of pollen for the single inhabitant who is to emerge 

 from the egg deposited therein.f 



* Rennie, ' Insect Architecture.' t See Vignette. 



