THE WREN. 19 



plenty of dried herbage in the walks, from the newly-mown 

 grass-plat. There she is on the edge of her nest ; she looks 

 at me earnestly with her beautiful black eyes. She is rather 

 frightened, but does not fly away. 



The little wren is not the only guest at my old house. 

 You perceive between the joists, the intervals are fiUed up 

 with rough stones and plaster. On the front, which is ex- 

 posed to the south, there is a hole into which you could not 

 thrust a goose-quill j and yet it is a dwelling: there is a nest 

 within it, belonging to a sort of bee, who lives a solitary 

 life.* Look at her, returning home with herprovisiops; her 

 hind feet are loaded with a yellow dust, which she has taken 

 from the stamens of flowers: she goes into the hole; when 

 she comes out again there wiU be no pollen on her feet; with 

 honey, which she has brought, she will make a savoury paste 

 of it at the bottom of her nest. This is, perhaps, her tenth 

 journey to-day, and she shows no inclination to rest. 



All these cares are for one egg which she has laid; for a 

 single egg which she will never see hatched; besides, that 

 which will issue from that egg, will not be a fly like herself, 

 but a worm, which will not be metamorphosed into a fly for 

 some time afterwards. 



She has, however, hidden it in that hole, and knows 

 precisely how much nourishment it will require before it 

 arrives at the state which ushers in its transformation into a 

 fly. This nourishment she goes to seek, and she seasons and 

 prepares it. There, she is gone again ! 



But what is this other brilliant little fly which is walking 

 upon the house wall 1 Her breast is green, and her abdomen 

 is of a purple red; but these two colours are so brilliant, 

 that I am really at a loss to find words splendid enough to 

 express them, but the names of an emerald and a ruby joined 

 together. 



That pretty fly — that living jewel — is the " chrysis." I 

 scarcely dare breathe, for fear of making it fly away. I should 

 like to take it in my hands, that I might have sufficient time 

 to examine it more closely, t This likewise is the mother of a 

 family; she also has an egg to lay, from which will issue a 



• Anthophora rettisa.— Ed. + Chrysis ignita. — Ed. 



