MASON-BKES. 



have learnt nothing by experience. But the mode in 

 which they accomplish this task varies according to 

 the situations in which they are placed. They appear 

 to have a glimmering of reason, employed as an 

 accessary and instrument of their instinct. 



The structure, when finished, consisted of a wall of 

 clay supported by two contiguous bricks, enclosing 

 six chambers, within which a mass of pollen, rather 

 larger than a cherry-stone, was deposited, together 

 with an etrg, from which in due time a grub was 

 hatched. Contrary to what has been recorded by pre- 

 ceding naturalists, with respect to other mason-bees, 

 we found the cells in this instance quite parallel and 

 perpendicular; but it may also be remarked, that the 



12 3 



Cells of Mason Bees built, in the first and second figures, by 

 Osmia bicurnis between bricks, and !n the third, by SJi-gachite 

 ' i the fluting of an uld pilaster; about halt the natural 



bee itself was a species altogether different from the 

 one which we have described above as the Antho- 

 ph-ora ntvsa, and agreed with the figure of the one 

 we caught quarrying the clay — (Osmia birornis). 



There was one circumstance attending the pro- 

 ceedings of this mason-bee which struck us not a 

 little, though we could not explain it to our own 



