232 nature's teachings. 



to a tree, generally a rose, and, using her jaws just as a tailor 

 uses his shears, cuts off a nearly semicircular piece of leaf, flies 

 away with it to her home, and, by dint of bending, pushing, 

 and pulling it, she forces it to the bottom of the cell. Suc- 

 cessive pieces of leaf follow, until she has made a thimble- 

 shaped cell, and she then places at its end an egg and a supply 

 of honey and pollen. 



Cell after cell succeeds, each being introduced into its prede- 

 cessor just as thimbles are packed. Judging from a specimen 

 in my collection, there are about eight layers of leaves to form 

 the walls of the cell, and the average length of each piece of 

 leaf rather exceeds half an inch. The entire length of the 

 cell-group is two inches and a half. The leaf-slices are always 

 cut from the edge, and, in my specimen of the nest, the serrated 

 outer edges of the leaves are all in one direction. 



Should any of my readers find one of these nests, it will be 

 as well for them to dip a needle point into diamond cement, 

 and introduce it under the outermost coating of leaves. Other- 

 wise, when the leaves are dry, and the insects break their way 

 into the open air, the cells will probably fall to pieces. 



These Bees are much more abundant than is usually thought. 

 In summer-time it is hardly possible to find a rose-bush on 

 which are not a number of leaves from which pieces of variable 

 size and shape, but always with a curved outline, have been 

 cut as with scissors. While cutting them, the Bee seems to 

 trace out her pattern, as it were, by using her feet like one leg 

 of a pair of compasses, and her head as the other leg. As 

 soon as she has nearly finished the operation, she poises herself 

 on the wing, to prevent her weight from tearing away the leaf 

 irregularly, and then, while still on the wing, makes the last 

 few bites, and severs the leaf entirely. 



The Chisel and the Adze. 



Already we have seen how exact is the analogy between 

 the scissors and the turtle-jaw. As we are upon the subject of 

 cutting instruments, we will continue it, trying to discover 

 some further analogies. 



On the right hand of the illustrations we see three cutting 

 tools made by human hands — i.e. the Chisel, the Stone Adze of 



