out a very small portion at atime. The succes- | 
sive portions which she gnaws off may be readily 
ascertained by an observer, as she carries them 
away from the place. In giving the history of a 
mason-wasp, we remarked the care with which 
she carried to a distance little fragments of brick, 
which she detached in the progress of excavation. 
We have recently watched a precisely similar 
procedure in the instance of a carpenter - bee 
forming a cell in a wooden post. The only dif 
ference was, that the bee did not fly so far away 
with her fragments of wood as the wasp did; but 
she varied the direction of her flight every time; 
and we could observe, that after dropping the 
chip of wood which she had carried off, she did 
not return in a direct line to her nest, but made 
a circuit of some extent before wheeling round 
to go back. On observing the proceedings of 
this carpenter-bee next day, we found her com- 
ing in with balls of pollen on her thighs; and on 
tracing her from the nest into the adjacent gar- 
den, we saw her visiting every flower which was 
likely to yield her a supply of pollen for her future 
progeny. This was not all: we subsequently saw 
her taking the direction of a clay-quarry fre- 
quented by the mason-bees, where we recognised 
her loading herself with a pellet of clay, and car- 
rying it into her cell in the wooden post. We 
observed her alternating this labour for several 
days, at one time carrying clay, and at another 
pollen ; till at length she completed her task, 
and closed the entrance with a barricado of clay, 
to prevent the intrusion of any insectivorous 
depredator, who might make prey of her young; 
or of some prying parasite, who might introduce 
its own eggs into the nest she had taken so much 
trouble to construct. Some days after it was 
finished, we cut into the post, and exposed this 
nest to view. It consisted of six cells of a some- 
what square shape, the wood forming the lateral 
walls; and each was separated from the one ad- 
jacent by a partition of clay, of the thickness of 
a playing card. The wood was not lined with 
any extraneous substance, but was worked as 
smooth as if it had been chiselled by a joiner. 
There were five cells, arranged in a very singular 
manner—two being almost horizontal, two per- 
pendicular, and one oblique. The depth to which 
the wood was excavated, in this instance, was 
considerably less than what we have observed in 
other species which dig perpendicular galleries 
several inches deep in posts and garden-seats; 
and they are inferior in ingenuity to the carpen- 
try of a bee described by Reaumur, which has 
not been ascertained to be a native of Britain, 
though a single indigenous species of the genus 
has been doubtingly mentioned, and is figured, 
by Kirby, in his valuable < Monographia.’ If it 
ever be found here, its large size and beautiful 
violet-coloured wings will render mistakes im- 
possible. 
“The violet carpenter-bee usually selects an 
Epnent piece of wood, into which she bores 
BEE. 
obliquely for about an inch; and then, changing 
the direction, works perpendicularly, and parallel 
to the sides of the wood, for twelve or fifteen 
inches, and half an inch in breadth. Sometimes 
the bee is contented with one or two of these ex- 
cavations ; at other times, when the wood is 
adapted to it, she scoops out three or four—a 
task which sometimes requires several weeks of 
incessant labour. The tunnel in the wood, how- 
ever, is only one part of the work; for the little 
architect has afterwards to divide the whole into 
cells, somewhat less than an inch in depth. It 
is necessary, for the proper growth of her pro- 
geny, that each should be separated from the 
other, and be provided with adequate food. She 
knows, most exactly, the quantity of food which 
each grub will require, during its growth; and 
she therefore does not hesitate to cut it off from 
any additional supply. In constructing her cells, 
she does not employ clay, like the bee which we 
have mentioned above, but the sawdust, if we 
may call it so, which she has collected in gnaw- 
ing out the gallery. It would not, therefore, 
have suited her design to scatter this about, as 
our carpenter-bee did. The violet-bee, on the 
contrary, collects her gnawings into a little store- 
heap for future use, at a short distance from her 
nest. She proceeds thus:—At the bottom of her 
excavation she deposits an egg, and over it fills a 
space nearly an inch high with the pollen of 
flowers, made into a paste with honey. She 
then covers this over with a ceiling composed of 
cemented sawdust, which also serves for the floor 
of the next chamber above it. For this purpose, 
she cements round the wall a ring of wood chips, 
taken from her store-heap; and within this ring 
forms another, gradually contracting the diameter 
till she has constructed a circular plate, about 
the thickness of a crown-piece, and of consider- 
able hardness. ‘This plate of course exhibits 
concentric circles, somewhat similar to the an- 
nual circles in the cross section of a tree. In 
the same manner she proceeds till she has com- 
pleted ten or twelve cells; and then she closes 
the main entrance with a barrier of similar ma- 
terials. Let us compare the progress of this little 
joiner with a human artisan—one who has been 
long practised in his trade, and has the most per- 
fect and complicated tools for his assistance. The 
bee has learned nothing by practice: she makes 
her nest but once in her life, but it is then as 
complete and finished asif she had made a thou- 
sand. She has no pattern before her—but the 
Architect of all things has impressed a plan upon 
her own mind, which she can realize without 
scale or compasses. Her two sharp teeth are the 
only tools with which she is provided for her 
laborious work; and yet she bores a tunnel, 
twelve times the length of her own body, with 
greater ease than the workman who bores into 
the earth for water, with his apparatus of augers 
adapted to every soil. Her tunnel is clean and 
regular ; she leaves He chips at the bottom, for 
401 
