he Bees placed
by my artifices under the necessity of making up for lost time, a few
are of a more easy-going temperament. I see some building anew, as
if nothing out of the way had happened; others--this is a very rare
course--going to settle on another tile, as though to avoid a society
of thieves; and lastly a few who bring pellets of mortar and zealously
finish the lid of their own cell, although it contains a strange egg.
However, housebreaking is the usual thing.

One more detail not without value: it is not necessary for you to
intervene and imprison Mason-bees for a time in order to witness the
acts of violence which I have described. If you follow the work of the
swarm assiduously, you may occasionally find a surprise awaiting you. A
Mason-bee will appear and, for no reason known to you, break open a door
and lay her egg in the violated cell. From what goes before, I look upon
the Bee as a laggard, kept away from the workyard by an accident, or
else carried to a distance by a gust of wind. On returning after an
absence of some duration, she finds her place taken, her cell used by
another. The victim of an usurper's villainy, like the prisoners in my
paper screws, she behaves as they do and indemnifies herself for her
loss by breaking into another's home.

Lastly, it was a matter of learning the behaviour, after their act of
violence, of the Masons who have smashed in a door, brutally expelled
the egg within and replaced it by one of their own laying. When the lid
is repaired to look as good as new and everything restored to order,
will they continue their burglarious ways and exterminate the eggs of
others to make room for their own? By no means. Revenge, that pleasure
of the gods and perhaps also of Bees, is satisfied after one cell has
been ripped open. All anger is appeased when the egg for which so much
work has been done is safely housed. Henceforth, both prisoners and
stray laggards resume their ordinary labours, indifferently with the
rest. They build honestly, they provision honestly, nor meditate further
evil. The past is quite forgotten until a fresh disaster occurs.

To return to the parasites: a mother chanced to find herself the
mistress of another's nest. She took advantage of this to entrust
her egg to it. This expeditious method, so easy for the mother and so
favourable to the success of her offspring, made such an impression on
her that she transmitted the maternal indolence to her posterity.