THE AUSTRALIAN NATURALIST. 137 
were rather hard to please in their choice of leaves, for they 
alighted here and there before making the final selection. Oc- 
casionally they would make a slit and then leave the leaf. 
There were numerous leaves which showed that the leaf-cutter 
had begun its operation, and for some reason or other had left 
its work. 
Most of the bees worked from the edge of the leaf and 
round to the right, but occasionally we saw one cut from right 
to left. 
The more common shape cut out of the leaf was that of the 
elongate side-pieces for the cell of its nest. The cutting was 
beautifully neat, and the head of the insect moved round rapidly 
and smoothly. In watching the bee cut one of these larger 
pieces, one would think it was going to cut a smaller circle, 
but on reaching the half-circle it worked along, enlarging the 
piece, when it curved round again, cutting the piece. off. The 
piece is then slightly bent from the outer edges and carried 
away with ease under the body, held by the legs. Some of the 
bees almost stood on their heads in the cutting process, but 
the majority were just slightly inclined. If one placed one’s 
head close to the bee while it was cutting, the noise of the 
mandibles could be heard quite distinctly, like the “click, click” 
of a pair of scissors. 
An amusing incident occurred. One of the bees, in severing’ 
a rather larger piece than the average, cut into a leaf vein, for 
-on setting out with its booty it was jerked back by a thread 
of tissue from the vein, and had to pull several times before it 
finally broke the thread and flew off in triumph or in anger. 
Most of the leaves cut into showed that the bees selected any 
leaf for either side or top pieces for the cells, but occasionally 
we saw leaves with a series of small circular holes only. 
Pieces of fading yellow leaves of roses were also used. The 
rose leaves, and leaves of the hazel-nut plants were evidently 
the favourites, though the leaves of the honeysuckle, plum and 
apple were also used. 
The hum of these bees is quite distinct from the steady hum 
of hive bees. It is more jerky, and resembles the angry 
sound of the hive bee when it has been disturbed. As the hive 
bees were gathering nectar and pollen from the honeysuckle 
flowers nearby, we could distinctly recognise the difference he- 
tween the two. 
We have also seen the tough leaves of the Waratah (Telopeu 
speciosissima) cut out by these bees. 
