426 Trans. Acad, Sci. of St. Louts 
times awkwardly flying backwards for a few inches and 
depositing it; or again, she would attempt this with an 
exceptionally large clod and awkwardly tumble over. She 
had no set form for doing things, but seemed satisfied 
merely to know that they were done. Once her awk- 
wardness in attempting to rise on the wing with a load 
caused three large pellets to roll down into the hole from 
the margin; each of these she carried out again and 
dropped some distance away. There was no male near, 
nor had I seen one, although I had been watching for 
him for two hours. She would often fly away and stay 
for long intervals, but when she returned she continued 
her excavating. Sometimes I found the suspicion creep- 
ing into my mind that these journeys might be of the na- 
ture of a hunt for a husband. 
When she had been at this arduous work for almost 
four hours, a male suddenly appeared hovering over 
her, and just as suddenly and unexpectedly did I see her 
quit her work and make a quick attempt to preen her 
body. But she was not quick enough to doff her house- 
cleaning garb of dusty gray, for already the male was 
upon her and mating very prettily occurred, lasting al- 
most a minute. Then the female went into the hole and 
was followed by the male; soon after, he came out and 
she followed; then he went in again with her after him. 
Finally they both came out and hovered coquettishly 
about each other for perhaps three minutes in a sort of 
nuptial dance, after which she went back to resume her 
work while he continued his lazy flight a few feet away 
for about ten minutes. Then he visited her once more 
and entered the cell; when he came out again both had 
some antennal communications; then he took his depar- 
ture while she resumed her work of home-making in ear- 
