OF NATURAL HISTORY. 327 



tar, of which fand is the bafis. She knows, like human builders, 

 that every kind of fand is not equally proper for making good mor- 

 tar. She goes, therefore, to a bed of fand and feleds, grain by 

 grain, the kind which is beft to anfwer her purpofe. With her teeth, 

 which are as large and as ftrong as thofe of the honey bee, fhe ex- 

 amines and brings together feveral grains. But fand alone will not 

 make mortar. Recourfe muft be had to a cement (Imilar to the 

 flacked lime employed by mafons. Our bee is unacquainted with 

 lime, but flie poffefles an equivalent in her own body. From her 

 mouth fhe throws out a vifcid liquor, with which fhe moiftens the 

 firft grain pitched upon. To this grain fhe cements a fecond, which 

 fhe moiflens in the fame manner, and to the former two fhe attach- 

 es a third, and fo on, till fhe has formed a mafs as large as the fhot 

 ufually employed to kill hares. This mafs fhe carries off in her teeth 

 to the place fhe had chofen for ereding her neft, and makes it the 

 foundation of the firft cell. In this manner fhe labours incelfantly 

 till the -whole cells are completed, a work which Is generally accom- 

 plifhed in five or fix days. All the cells are fimilar, and nearly 

 equal in dimenfions. Before they are covered, their figure refem- 

 bles that of a thimble. She never begins to make a fecond till the 

 firft be finifhed. Each cell is about an inch high, and nearly half 

 an inch in diameter. But the labour of building is not the only one 

 this female bee has to undergo. When a cell has been raifed to one 

 half or two thirds of its height, another occupation commences. 

 She feems to know the quantity of food that will be neceffary to 

 nourifh the young that is to proceed from the egg, from its exclu- 

 fion till it acquires its full growth, and pafles into the chryfalis ftate. 

 The food which is prepared for the fupport of the young worm con- 

 fifts of the farina or powder of flowers, diluted with honey, which 

 forms a kind of pap. Before the cell is entirely finifhed, the mafon- 

 bee colleds from the flowers, and depofits in the cell, a large quan- 

 tity of farina, and afterwards difgorges upon it as much honey as 



dilutes 



