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Microscopical Essays. 



the flowers of the wild poppy, which fhe cuts out curioufly-, and ; 

 then feizing them with her legs, conveys them to her neft. If the 

 pieces are rumpled fhe ftraitens them, and then affixes them t@. 

 her walls with wonderous art; fhe generally applies two layers 

 of thefe fragments on each other. If the piece me has cut. and 

 ranfporied is too large for the place fhe intends it for, fhe clips, 

 off the fuperfluous parts, and conveys the fhreds out of the 

 apartment.. 



After the bee has lined her cell, fhe fills it nearly half an incfc 

 deep with a pafte proper to nourifh the larva when hatched 

 from the egg; when the bee has amaffed a fufficient quantity of 

 pafte, flie then takes her tapeftry, and folds it over the pafte andx 

 egg. which are by this means inclofed as it were in a bag of pafte ; 

 this done, fhe fills up with earth the empty fpace that is above 

 the bag. There is another bee which does the fame with rofe 

 leaves, and in the fubftance of a thick poft. A friend of mine 

 had a piece of wood cut from a .ftrong poft that fupported the roof 

 of a cart-houfe, full of thefe cells or round 'holes, three-eighths of 

 an inch diameter, and about three-fourths deep, each of which was 

 filled with thefe. rofe-leaf cafes, finely covered in at top and bottom. 



The mafon bee is fo called by Reaumur from the manner of it's , 

 building it's neft, Thefe bees collecl with their jaws fmall par- 

 cels of earth and fand, which they glue together with a ftrong 

 cement, which is furnifhed from the probofcis ; and of this they 

 form a fimple but commodious habitation, which is generally 

 placed along walls that are expofed to the fouth. Each neft re- 

 fembles a lump of" rude earth, of about fix or feven inches.: 

 diameter* thrown againft the wall ; the labour of conftrucling fo 



