120 LETTERS ON ENTOMOLOGY. 
disdain a more homely colour. She first makes 
a hole in the ground, which she polishes and 
makes quite smooth ; then cutting out oval pieces 
of the poppies, she returns and fits them to the 
walls, smoothing the wrinkles, and cutting off 
the superfluous parts. She puts three or four 
layers on the bottom and two at the sides. Then 
filling it about half an inch deep with honey 
and pollen, and committing an egg to it, she 
wraps over the poppy-lining, and fills it up with 
earth. 
The solitary bee pierces a hole in wood which 
is sometimes twelve or fifteen inches long, and 
large enough to admit of her free entrance. For 
this purpose she generally attacks old dry wood, 
as posts, &c. and sometimes thick doors or gates. 
It appears a formidable undertaking for so small 
an insect to hollow out and clear away twelve 
or fifteen inches of wood, yet that is merely the 
case of the nest. She is then obliged to divide 
it into cells, of which every one is seven or eight 
lines high, and is destined for one maggot ; they 
are separated by a kind of ceiling, which is made 
after the maggot is deposited in the cell ; but 
not content with providing a dwelling, she also 
gives it a certain quantity of food. This food 
is the paste of pollen and honey, and when she 
