HABITATIONS OF INSECTS. 439 



form these ? With what materials can she construct the 

 floors and ceilings ? Why truly God " doth instruct her 

 to discretion and doth teach her." In excavating her 

 tunnel she has detached a large quantity of fibres, which 

 lie on the ground like a heap of saw-dust. This material 

 supplies all her wants. Having deposited an egg at the 

 bottom of the cylinder along with the requisite store of 

 pollen and honey, she next, at the height of about three 

 quarters of an inch, (which is the depth of each cell,) con- 

 structs of particles of the saw-dust glued together, and 

 also to the sides of the tunnel, what may be called an an- 

 nular stage or scaffolding. When this is sufficiently hard- 

 ened, its interior edge affords support for a second ring 

 of the same materials, and thus the ceiling is gradually 

 formed of these concentric circles, till there remains only 

 a small orifice in its centre, which is also closed with 

 a circular mass of agglutinated particles of saw-dust. 

 When this partition, which serves as the ceiling of the 

 first cell and the flooring of the second, is finished, it is 

 about the thickness of a crown-piece, and exhibits the ap- 

 pearance of as many concentic circles as the animal has 

 made pauses in her labour. One cell being finished, she 

 proceeds to another, which she furnishes and completes 

 in the same maimer, and so on until she has divided her 

 whole tunnel into ten or twelve apartments. 



Here, if you have followed me in this detail with the 

 interest which I wish it to inspire, a query will suggest 

 itself. It will strike you that such a laborious undertaking 

 as the constructing and furnishing these cells, cannot be 

 the work of one or even of two days: Considering that 

 every cell requires a store of honey and pollen, not to be 



