142 LETTEES FEOM ALABAMA. 
have been performed quite alone. No doubt the 
stranger is one of her own progeny, newly hatched 
from pupa. 
15th . — second wasp was evolved, and on the 
a third ; so that now four take their station 
on the comb, in no wise distinguishable from each 
other. After this, more were successively produced, 
but I ceased to take any further notes. 
Simultaneously with this, another operation was 
going on in another part of the school-house, of a 
somewhat similar character. A large shining black 
Bee, very much resembling in size and appearance 
the beautiful Violet-bee (Xylocopa violacea) of 
Europe, but without the purple wings, was boring 
a circular hole, about one-third of an inch in 
diameter, in the under side of one of the logs of 
which the house was built. Being the first speci- 
men of the species I had seen, I caught it and 
secured it for my cabinet. That was on the 
twelfth ; but on the fourteenth, I discovered to my 
surprise that another bee of the same species had 
taken to the hole, at which she was labouring with 
great industry. The direction is perpendicularly 
upwards ; and the bee gnaws away the particles of 
wood with her jaws, moving round and round as 
required. Tedious as this process seems, such was 
the assiduity with which she prosecuted her em- 
ployment, that the hole, which had been on the 
previous day 1^ inch deep, was now 1^ inch. 
The abraded particles of wood fall profusely, 
like sawdust, from this hole, and from another 
being bored by the same species in one of the 
rafters. On the 18th it had attained the depth 
of 1| inch. When the bee is touched or otherwise 
molested during her work, she does not always 
