CARDER-BEES. 65 



US a very complete nest of carder-bees, which differs 

 fi-om those described by R aumur, in being made, not 

 of moss, but withered grass. With this exception, 

 we find that his account agrees accurately with our 

 own observation.* 



The carder-bees select for their nest a shallow ex- 

 cavation about half a foot in diameter; but when they 

 cannot find one to suit their purpose, they under- 

 take the Herculean task of digging one themselves. 

 They cover this hollow with a dome of moss — some- 

 times, as we have ascertained, of withered grass. 

 They make use, indeed, of whatever materials may be 

 within their reach; for they do not attempt to bring 

 any thing from a distance, not even when they are 

 deprived of the greater portion by an experimental 

 naturalist. Their only method of transporting ma- 

 terials to the building is by pushing them along the 

 ground — the bee, for that purpose, working back- 

 wards, with its head turned from the nest. If there 

 is only one bee engaged in this labour, as usually 

 happens in the early spring, when a nest is founded 

 by a solitary female who has outlived the winter, she 

 transports her little bundles of moss or grass by suc- 

 cessive backward pushes, till she gets them home. 



In the latter part of the season, when the hive is 

 populous and can afford more hands, there is an in- 

 genious division of this labour. A file of bees, to the 

 number sometimes of half a dozen, is established, 

 from the nest to the moss or grass which they intend 

 to use, the heads of all the file of bees being turned 

 from the nest and towards the material. The last 

 bee of the file lays hold of some of the moss with 

 her mandibles, disentangles it from the rest, and 

 having carded it with her fore-legs into a sort of felt 

 or small bundle, she pushes it under her body to the 



*J. R. 



VOL. IV. 6* 



