LETTERS ON ENTOMOLOGY. 125 
the repairing and enlarging of the nest. Each 
individual has its portion of work assigned, from 
an inch to an inch and a half, and is furnished 
with a ball of ligneous fibre, scraped by its power- 
ful jaws from posts, rails, &c. They all perish 
on the approach of the cold season, except a few 
of the females, who remain torpid. 
Reaumur made a glass hive for them, and was 
thus enabled to watch their proceedings, without 
oifending them, which we know is no very easy 
task. 
We now come to the villagers, which the 
humble bees may be truly called. They live in 
companies of fifty and sixty, in a rustic-looking 
habitation. They are much larger than the hive 
bee, and fly about with a much louder humming. 
They are divided into four orders ; large females, 
small females, males, and workers. The first, 
like the female wasps, are the original founders 
of their republics. They come out in the autumn, 
and pass the winter, as appears from an observa- 
tion of Huber's, in a particular apartment sepa- 
rate from the rest, and rendered warm by a 
carpeting of grass and moss, but without any 
food. 
If they do not find a hole ready for their nest, 
they make one in the ground, which is prin- 
