APPENDICES. 347 
egg of their own in the cell containing the honey or pollen, as 
the case may be. 
It was formerly believed that the egg of the parasitic bee 
was placed in the same cell with the egg of the honey-bee, and 
that, being hatched first, the young parasite devoured all the 
food, leaving the infant of the honey-bee to find himself born 
to an empty larder, and consequently speedy starvation ; but 
more recent observation has led to the conclusion that this is 
not the case, but that the parasitic bee, on entering the nest, 
selects cells already furnished with honey or pollen, but in 
which no egy has as yet been laid; while the unsuspicious 
female proprietors of the nest, finding an unexpected egg de- 
posited in the cell they first visit, exhibit no sign of surprise, 
but pass on to the next, not seeming to be at all disturbed 
by the presence of the uninvited deposit ; just as small birds 
make no attempt to exclude the egg of the cuckoo, but hatch 
it, and rear the young intruder along with their own offspring. 
This occurs in the nests of wild bees constructed in different 
situations, some kinds making an excavation expressly, others 
adopting the deserted work of some other insect, or taking 
advantage of an accidental hollow. For instance, Anthidium 
manicatum, one of our summer bees, generally uses the holes 
bored in willow stumps by the Cossus ligniperda; but a nest of 
this species was once found, as described by Mr. F. Smith, in 
the keyhole of a garden door. Some of the humble-bees, on 
the other hand, carefully construct their own burrow. A beauti- 
ful exotic species, a large and powerful bee, has received the 
specific name of Jatipes, from the singular broadening and 
strengthening of the front pair of feet. These broadened feet 
assume somewhat of the character of the front feet of the mole, 
or rather those of that curious insect the mole cricket. These 
enlarged feet, with the thick brushes of strong hairs with 
which they are furnished, are evidently excavating implements, 
and no doubt the works produced by their agency are of a very 
interesting kind ; but entomological discovery has not at present 
made us acquainted with the nest architecture of this handsome 
insect. A pretty little English bee, one of the solitary kinds, 
often makes its burrow in sheltered parts of hard gravel walks, 
