33° 



THE PHILOSOPHY 



and conduds it nearly parallel to the axis of the wood. The fize 

 of her body requires that this hole fhould have a confiderable dia- 

 meter. It is often fo large as to admit the finger of a man, and it 

 fometimes extends from twelve to fifteen inches in length. If the 

 thicknefs of the wood permits, fhe makes three or four of tliefe long 

 holes in its interior part. M. de Reaumur found three of thefe pa- 

 rallel holes in an old efpalier poft. Their diameters exceeded half 

 an inch. This labour, for a fingle bee, is prodigious ; but, in exe- 

 cuting it, fhe confumes weeks, and even months. 



Around the foot of a poft or piece of wood where one of thefe 

 bees are working, little heaps of timber-duft are always found lying 

 on the ground. Thefe heaps daily increafe in magnitude, and the 

 particles of duft are as large as thofe produced by a hand-faw. The 

 two feeth with which the animal is provided are the only inftru- 

 ments fhe employs in making fuch confiderable perforations. Each 

 tooth confifts of a folid piece of fhell, which in fhape refembles an 

 auger. It is convex above, concave below, and terminates in a fharp 

 but ftrong point. 



Thefe long holes are defigned for lodgings to the worms that are 

 to proceed from the eggs which the bee is foon to depofit in them. 

 But, after the holes are finifhed, her labour is by no means at aa 

 end. The eggs muft not be mingled, or piled above each other. 

 Every feparate worm muft have a diftindt appartment, without any 

 communication with the others. Each long hole or tube, according- 

 ly, is only the outer walls of a houfe which is to confift of many 

 chambers ranged one above another. A hole of about twelve inches 

 in length fhe divides into ten or twelve feparate appartments, each of 

 which is about an inch high. The roof of the loweft room is the 

 floor of the fecond, and fo on to the uppermoft. Each floor is about 

 the thicknefs of a French crown. The floors or divifions are com- 



pofed 



