AND THE CHILDREN. 
15 
I have closly watched this nest for more than three 
months. Let us now take it and examine it. For con¬ 
venience we’ll break the rail so as to see better the house 
that this little carpenter has built, for the insect is the 
Carpenter Bee. 
Why, the hole is almost filled up ! How could that 
little thing turn around in there ? And where did she 
get those fine chips? Is the entire hole filled up with 
chips? We shall wait until she returns, perhaps she can 
tell us where the chips come from. 
Ah ! here she is. Bet her enter. I’ll now give her 
some chloroform and we can examine her closely.—Look 
at her head. She has a pair of strong pinchers or mandi¬ 
bles as we call them. It is with these that she tears off 
the little chips in the nest. She is about as large as the 
Honey-bee but must be a great deal stronger. See, how 
ironry her black abdomen appears. 
We’ll cut up the rail so we can see the nest better. 
—The hole is about four and a half to five inches deep. 
It does not pass ‘down straight but in a winding way. 
At the bottom there is a thin layer of raspings upon 
which is a larva. Then another thin layer of raspings 
and above this, pollen. A thick layer of raspings covers 
the pollen ; another lar/a with a pollen-mass above it is 
next in order. Five larvae are here. Too bad I have 
