enough of her; and I am anxious not to interfere too much with the
little Aygues-side colony, for whom I have other experiments in view.
Fortunately, I have at my own place, under the eaves of a shed, a
magnificent nest of Chalicodoma sicula in full activity. I can draw to
whatever extent I please on the populous city. The insect is small,
less than half the size of C. muraria, but no matter: it will deserve
all the more credit if it can traverse the two miles and a half in
store for it and find its way back to the nest. I take forty Bees,
isolating them, as usual, in screws of paper.

In order to reach the nest, I place a ladder against the wall: it will
be used by my daughter Aglae and will enable her to mark the exact
moment of the return of the first Bee. I set the clock on the
mantelpiece and my watch at the same time, so that we may compare the
instant of departure and of arrival. Things being thus arranged, I
carry off my forty captives and go to the identical spot where C.
muraria works, in the pebbly bed of the Aygues. The trip will have a
double object: to observe Reaumur's Mason and to set the Sicilian
Mason at liberty. The latter, therefore, will also have two and a half
miles to travel home.

At last my prisoners are released, all of them being first marked with
a big white dot in the middle of the thorax.

You do not come off scot-free when handling one after the other forty
wrathful Bees, who promptly unsheathe and brandish their poisoned
stings. The stab is but too often given before the mark is made. My
smarting fingers make movements of self-defence which my will is not
always able to control. I take hold with greater precaution for myself
than for the insect; I sometimes squeeze harder than I ought to if I