MASON-BEES. 37 



the weather was dry, and the clay at the surface was 

 parched and hard. It must have been this circum- 

 stance which induced them to prefer digging a hole, 

 as it were in concert, though each of them had to 

 build a separate nest. 



The distance to which they carried the clay was 

 probably considerable, as there was no wall near, in 

 the direction they all flew towards, upon which they 

 could build; and in the same direction also, it is 

 worthy of remark, they could have procured much 

 nearer the very same sort of clay. Whatever 

 might be the cause of their preference, we could 

 not but admire their extraordinary industry. It 

 did not require more than half a minute to knead 

 one of the pellets of clay; and from their frequent 

 returns, probably not more than five minutes to 

 carry it to the nest, and apply it, were wanted. 

 From the dryness of the weather, indeed, it was in- 

 dispensable for them to work rapidly, otherwise the 

 clay could not have been made to hold together. 

 The extent of the whole labour of forming a single 

 nest may be imagined, if v/e estimate that it must 

 take several hundred pellets of clay for its completion. 

 If a bee work fourteen or fiiteen hours a day, there- 

 fore, carrying ten or twelve pellets to its nest every 

 hour, it will be able to finish the structure in about 

 two or three days; allowing some hours of extra time 

 for the more nice workmanship of the cells in which 

 the eggs are to be deposited, and the young grubs 

 reared. 



That the construction of such a nest is not a 

 merely agreeable exercise to the mason-bee has been 

 sufficiently proved by M. Du Hamel. He has ob- 

 served a bee {Mcgachile rnurari'a) less careful to 

 perform the necessary labour for the protection of 

 her offspring than those we have described; but, not 

 less desirous of obtaining this protection, attempt to 



VOL. IV. 4 



