hand down
the site from one generation to the next. It is true that the very
matutinal, even partly nocturnal character of the work makes the insect
suffer less inconvenience from the traffic.

The burrows cover an extent of some ten square yards, and their mounds,
which often come near enough to touch, average a distance of four inches
at the most from one another. Their number is therefore something like
a thousand. The ground just here is very rough, consisting of stones
and dust mixed with a little mould and held together by the closely
interwoven roots of the couch-grass. But, owing to its nature, it is
thoroughly well drained, a condition always in request among Bees and
Wasps that have underground cells.

Let us forget for a moment what the Zebra Halictus and the Early
Halictus have taught us. At the risk of repeating myself a little,
I will relate what I observed during my first investigations. The
Cylindrical Halictus works in May. Except among the social species, such
as Common Wasps, Bumble-bees, Ants and Hive-bees, it is the rule for
each insect that victuals its nests either with honey or game to work by
itself at constructing the home of its grubs. Among insects of the same
species there is often neighbourship; but their labours are individual
and not the result of co-operation. For instance, the Cricket-hunters,
the Yellow-winged Sphex, settle in gangs at the foot of a sandstone
cliff, but each digs her own burrow and would not suffer a neighbour to
come and help in piercing the home.

In the case of the Anthophorae, an innumerable swarm takes possession
of a sun-scorched crag, each Bee digging her own gallery and jealously
excluding any of her fellows who might venture to come to the entrance
of her hole. The Three-pronged Osmia, when boring the bramble-stalk
tunnel in which her cells are to be stacked, gives a warm reception to
any Osmia that dares set foot upon her property.

Let one of the Odyneri who make their homes in a road-side bank mistake
the door and enter her neighbour's house: she would have a bad time of
it! Let a Megachile, returning with her leafy disk in her legs, go
into the wrong basement: she would be very soon dislodged! So with the
others: each has her own home, which none of the others has the right
to enter. This is the rule, even among Bees and Wasps established in a
populous colony on a common site. Close neighbourhood implies no sort of
intimate relationship.

Great ther