130 LETTERS ON ENTOMOLOGY. 
required in this work, and how hard we should 
consider our case if obliged to such unremitting 
labour ! nevertheless those who studiously en- 
deavour to perform all their duties will find 
almost as much to do as the bees, though in a 
more varied and amusing manner, it must be 
confessed. 
Another kind of bee constructs her nest in a 
quite different manner, and with still greater ad- 
dress. She is hardly so large as the common bee, 
and hides her admirable work underground. The 
materials are simple, being merely pieces of leaves 
from the mulberry-tree, elm, rose-tree, &c. The 
exterior of each nest resembles a toothpick case, 
both in size and form, being a tube rounded at the 
ends. Its natural position is horizontal, and some 
inches under the surface of the earth ; therefore 
the first labour of the bee is to hollow a hole for 
its reception, which in itself requires strength 
and patience. The nest itself is formed of a 
number of pieces of leaf, of an oval form, folded 
and adjusted one over the other. If this enve- 
lope is taken off, we discover a number of smaller 
cases, made in the same way, like small thimbles 
with the smaller end slipped into the open part 
of another. Each of these is a cell where the 
maggot is to live, and at the same time a vase 
