this nest will find before them an open road, or one
at most obstructed by crumbly matter, which offers less resistance than
the neighbouring soil, as yet untouched. The exit-way will therefore be
the primitive way, contrived by the mother during the construction of
the nest. All enter upon it without any hesitation, for the cells open
straight on it. All, coming and going from the cells to the bottom
of the shaft and from the shaft to the cells, will take part in the
clearing, under the stimulus of the approaching deliverance.

It is quite unnecessary here to presume among these underground
prisoners a concerted effort to liberate themselves more easily by
working in common: each is thinking only of herself and invariably
returns, after resting, to toil at the inevitable path, the path of
least resistance, in short the passage once dug by the mother and now
more or less blocked up.

Among the Cylindrical Halicti, any one who wishes emerges from her
cell at her own hour, without waiting for the emergence of the others,
because the cells, grouped in small stacks, have each their special
outlet opening into the common gallery. The result of this arrangement
is that all the inhabitants of one burrow are able to assist, each doing
her share, in the clearing of the exit-shaft. When she feels fatigued,
the worker retires to her undamaged cell and another succeeds her,
impatient to get out rather than to help the first. At last the way is
clear and the Halicti emerge. They disperse over the flowers around as
long as the sun is hot; when the air cools, they go back to the burrows
to spend the night there.

A few days pass and already the cares of egg-laying are at hand. The
galleries have never been abandoned. The Bees have come to take refuge
there on rainy or very windy days; most, if not all, have returned every
evening at sunset, each doubtless making for her own cell, which is
still intact and which is carefully impressed upon her memory. In a
word, the Cylindrical Halictus does not lead a wandering life; she has a
fixed residence.

A necessary consequence results from these settled habits: for the
purpose of her laying, the Bee will adopt the identical burrow in which
she was born. The entrance-gallery is ready therefore. Should it need to
be carried deeper, to be pushed in new directions, the builder has but
to extend it at will. The old cells even can serve again, if slightly
restored.

Thus resuming possession o