divided from top to bottom. In this case, the support itself, the
pebble, completes the outer wall.

When the cell is finished, the Bee at once sets to work to victual it.
The flowers round about, especially those of the yellow broom (Genista
scoparia), which in May deck the pebbly borders of the mountain
streams with gold, supply her with sugary liquid and pollen. She comes
with her crop swollen with honey and her belly yellowed underneath
with pollen dust. She dives head first into the cell; and for a few
moments you see some spasmodic jerks which show that she is disgorging
the honey-syrup. After emptying her crop, she comes out of the cell,
only to go in again at once, but this time backwards. The Bee now
brushes the lower side of her abdomen with her two hind-legs and rids
herself of her load of pollen. Once more she comes out and once more
goes in head first. It is a question of stirring the materials, with
her mandibles for a spoon, and making the whole into a homogeneous
mixture. This mixing-operation is not repeated after every journey: it
takes place only at long intervals, when a considerable quantity of
material has been accumulated.

The victualling is complete when the cell is half full. An egg must
now be laid on the top of the paste and the house must be closed. All
this is done without delay. The cover consists of a lid of pure
mortar, which the Bee builds by degrees, working from the
circumference to the centre. Two days at most appeared to me to be
enough for everything, provided that no bad weather--rain or merely
clouds--came to interrupt the labour. Then a second cell is built,
backing on the first and provisioned in the same manner. A third, a
fourth, and so on follow, each supplied with honey and an egg and
closed before the foundations of the next are laid. Each task begun is