40 INSECT ARCHITECTURE. 



assiduously building its walls. The bricklayer's 

 mortar had either partly fallen out, or been removed 

 by the bee, who had commenced building at the 

 lower end, and did not build downwards, as the 

 social-wasps construct their cells. 



The very different behaviour of the insect here, and 

 at the quarry, struck us as not a little remarkable. 

 When digging and preparing the clay, our approach, 

 however near, produced no alarm ; the work went 

 on as if we had been at a distance ; and though 

 we were standing close to the hole, this did not scare 

 away any of the bees upon their arrival to procure a 

 fresh load. But if we stood near the nest, or even in 

 the way by which the bee flew to it, she turned back 

 or made a wide circuit immediately, as if afraid to 

 betray the site of her domicile. We even observed 

 her turning back, when we were so distant that it 

 could not reasonably be supposed she was jealous of 

 us ; but probably she had detected some prowling 

 insect-depredator, tracking her flight with designs 

 upon her provision for her future progeny. We 

 imagined we could perceive not a little art in her 

 jealous caution, for she would alight on the tiles as 

 if to rest herself; and even when she had entered the 

 coal-house, she did not go directly to her nest, but 

 again rested on a shelf, and at other times pre- 

 tended to examine several crevices in the wall, at 

 some distance from the nest. But when there was 

 nothing to alarm her, she flew directly to the spot, 

 and began eagerly to add to the building. 



It is in instances such as these, which exhibit the 

 adaptation of instinct to circumstances, that our 

 reason finds the greatest difficulty in explaining the 

 governing principle of the minds of the inferior ani- 

 mals. The mason-bee makes her nest by an inva- 

 riable rule; the model is in her mind, as it has been 

 in the mind of her race from their first creation : they 



