10 BEES AND BEE-KEEPING. 



bee, had excavated a hole, at first perpendicularly, 

 and then horizontally, about sin. in length. The 

 work of lining the tube with leaf had commenced 

 by cutting from some rose bush a circular piece, 

 curling this, and carrying it to the bottom of the 

 tube, and spreading it, without a wrinkle, into a saucer 

 form, to cover the end. Now the jaw scissors had 

 been set to snip out from the leaf-side spindle- 

 shaped pieces, which, brought one by one to the nest, 

 are applied to the wall at the bottom, and made 

 to overlap so cleverly that the earth is entirely 

 covered, while the serrations of one piece, worked 

 alternately in front of and behind the cut edge of 

 the next, hold all in exact position without any 

 cementing. We have now the representative of one 

 cell of ordinary honeycomb, and the analogy con- 

 tinues in that the Megachile proceeds to her feeding- 

 ground amongst the thistles, from which she collects 

 pollen by hair brushes on her hind legs, whence 

 it is conveyed for temporary storing to feather-like 

 appendages on the under side of the abdomen; 

 honey is gathered by her tongue ; and thus fur- 

 nished, she proceeds homewards to practise the art 

 of pudding making, for the two materials are kneaded 

 together, and increased in volume by repeated visits 

 to the thistles, until a stock of food, in all respects 

 resembling that used in the bee-hive, and sufficient 

 for one of her progeny, fills her leaf-lining nearly 

 to the top. Her first egg is now deposited, from 

 which, in due course, will issue the humble grub, 

 which, through Nature's far-sightedness, with all its 

 humility, is still born to a competency. The cell 



