THE ANIMAL KINGDOM. 207 



CHAPTER IX. 



CLOTH-CUTTERS AND LEAD-EATEES. 



Seamen are great admirers of certain crustaceans pos- 

 sessed of singular habits; these are monopolizers of a strange 

 class, which eat sundry proprietors in order to make them- 

 selves masters of their domiciles. After having devoured 

 the mollusc which resides in a particular kind of shell, 

 they convert it into an abode, which they drag about every- 

 where Avith them, and beneath the roof of which they 

 shelter themselves from their enemies by burying them- 

 selves like a soldier in his sentry-box, or a frightened monk 

 in his cell. Hence the names of soldier and Bernard the 



twelv'e times the length of her body without leaving any chips, and fixes her 

 shelves so finely that a number of fragments are as solid as one piece. 



It can, however, scarcely be said that any of these insects excel the poppy- 

 bee and the rose-leaf cutter either in skill or taste. 



The poppy-bee {Osmia "papaveris, Latreille) excavates a hole three inches deep 

 in the ground, which it smooths, polishes, and then hangs with the flower leaves 

 of the scarlet poppy, laid down with such skill that they are as smooth as glass, 

 although when we cut them with scissors, and take the greatest care with them, 

 it is almost impossible to keep them from wrinkling. The rose-leaf cutter 

 {Megachile centVMCvIaris, Latreille) requires circular pieces of rose-leaf to line her 

 nest, so she cuts out the portion she wants as quickly as we could do with scissors 

 and much more neatly. Not to impede her progress she keeps the cut portion 

 between her legs, using her body as a trammel. When she has nearly com- 

 pleted this part of her task, she poises herself on her wings lest the weight of 

 her body should tear off the piece prematurely. Then taking the piece to the cell, 

 she fixes it to the inside, solely by calculating upon the natural spring of the leaf, 

 and so adapts the pieces that the middle of one always overlies ajoiti in the others. 

 Finally, having stored the cell with pollen and honey, she deposits an egg and 

 covers the opening with three pieces of rose-leaf, so exactly circular that they 

 coirld not be more accurately drawn with compasses. — Tr. 



