stake, in the nests of both the
Chalicodoma of the Pebbles and the Chalicodoma of the Sheds. All through
the winter, I rush about, getting my nests from the roofs of old sheds
and the pebbles of the waste-lands; I stuff my pockets with them, fill
my box, load Favier's knapsack; I collect enough to litter all the
tables in my study; and, when it is too cold out of doors, when the
biting mistral blows, I tear open the fine silk of the cocoons to
discover the inhabitant. Most of them contain the Mason in the perfect
state; others give me the larva of the Anthrax; others--very numerous,
these--give me the larva of the Leucopsis. And this last is
alone, always alone, invariably alone. The whole thing is utterly
incomprehensible when one knows, as I know, how many times the probe
entered those cells.

My perplexity only increases when, on the return of summer, I witness
for the second time the Leucopsis' repeated operations on the same cells
and for the second time find a single larva in the compartments which
have been bored several times over. Shall I then be forced to accept
that the auger is able to recognize the cells already containing an
egg and that it thenceforth refrains from laying there? Must I admit an
extraordinary sense of touch in that bit of horse-hair, or even better,
a sort of divination which declares where the egg lies without having to
touch it? But I am raving! There is certainly something that escapes
me; and the obscurity of the problem is simply due to my incomplete
information. O patience, supreme virtue of the observer, come to my aid
once more! I must begin all over again for the third time.

Until now, my investigations have been made some time after the laying,
at a period when the larva is at least fairly developed. Who knows?
Something perhaps happens, at the very commencement of infancy, that may
mislead me afterwards. I must apply to the egg itself if I would
learn the secret which the grub will not reveal. I therefore resume
my observations in the first fortnight of July, when the Leucopses are
beginning to visit busily both Mason-bee's nests. The pebbles in the
waste-lands supply me with plenty of buildings of the Chalicodoma of the
Walls; the byres scattered here and there in the fields give me, under
their dilapidated roofs, in fragments broken off with the chisel, the
edifices of the Chalicodoma of the Sheds. I am anxious not to complete
the destruction of my home hives, already so sor