1929] 
The Nesting Habits of Epinomia 
245 
the grassy areas the vegetation helped to anchor the loose 
soil and hold the little hills intact over their burrows. Figure 
1 shows their domes among the sparse grass. 
In another area, perhaps a hundred yards away, on a 
plateau left by the artificial cutting down of a high em- 
bankment, they also occurred in great abundance in that 
year. This plateau, about six feet above the surrounding sur- 
face, had a slight southward slope, the same as the first 
locality. The population of bees inhabiting this small eleva- 
tion was of especial interest. Four years previously, in the 
early spring, this embankment had been graded down and 
the yellow clay hauled away for use elsewhere. Every 
season thereafter, I frequently scanned the newly exposed 
soil of this plateau in search of data upon the succes- 
sion of insect life that would take possesssion of it. The 
first and second summers gave no vegetation, (this suggests 
how heavy and impenetrable was the soil, if even seeds and 
grasses could not take hold upon it) , and besides a few tur- 
ret spiders, grasshoppers and cicindela beetles, nothing was 
seen to nest upon it. In the third year, the parent stock of 
the present population migrated thither from the other knoll 
one hundred yards to the north. Considering the enormous 
increase and the flourishing condition of this immigrant 
population, we are justified in concluding that the condi- 
tions which characterized this spot must have been precisely 
to their pleasure and advantage, and therefore we may 
justly accept this as their characteristic habitat, although 
we have seen them in only few localities. Especially on the 
northern portion of this plateau, in an area about twenty- 
five feet square, the nests were so abundant that one could 
not step anywhere without trampling upon them. In fact, 
it often happened that three to five nests were so close to- 
gether as to have one large, spreading mound to cover them 
all, and in one area only one yard square, I actually counted 
two hundred and sixty nests of these bees. Figure 2 
shows seven nests and a coin (American ten-cent piece) to 
show the relative size. The task of digging must have been 
great in this heavy clay, for the amount of soil was enor- 
mous. When one looks upon the work of a colony of these 
bees, one cannot help thinking that they, like the earth- 
