214 THE UNIVERSE. 



of each other. They are often met with in the hollows 

 of stones or the flutings of columns. I found some solitary 

 on different monuments in Italy ; they were adherent to 

 pillars, and constructed of little stones agglutinated to- 

 gether by a very fine mortar. They were extremely solid. 



In Egyjit, where the mason-bees are ver}^ common, we 

 find in many UK^numents numerous agglomerations of 

 their nests. The roofs of some of those ancient subter- 

 ranean teni2)les, called Speos, are sometimes entirely 

 blocked iip by them. They are so heaped and piled up 

 one upon another, that they hang from the ceilings like 

 the stalactites of our caverns. But these nests are not 

 built with little stones ; in imitation of the fellahs of Upper 

 Egypt, the mason-bee constructs its abode with the mud 

 of the Nile. 



The ceiling of an apartment in a temple at the island of 

 Philce, in which I bivouacked for some days, was com- 

 pletely hidden from view by these nests! While I was 

 lying down, I saw those lizards which attach themselves so 

 adroitly to the slightest asperities on the walls, running 

 aliout in the midst of them with surprising activity. 

 These Avere geckoes, which threw themselves upon the 

 young bees as they issued from their abodes, or gul2)ed 

 down the young larva", the nests of which presented any 

 breach. ^ 



But if any insect merit the palm of architecture, it 

 must certainly be awarded to the paper-making wasp 

 (Vespa nidulans, Fabricius). It builds abodes much more 

 ingenious than our domestic bee. If the wax-cakes of the 



^I have here expressly mentioned the extreme agility (if the geckoes, because 

 it is generally said that they only move veiy slowly. Those which I saw in 

 Egypt hooked themselves .so strongly and easily to the walls Ijy means of the fine 

 folds of their fingers, or their hooked nails, that they ran upon the walls and 

 ceilinr's with such agilitv that it was difficult to seize them. 



