Insect Adventures

of them round, some of them oval, as if idle but skillful hands had been at work with the pinking-iron. In some places there is scarcely anything but the vei

r, oval pieces make the floor and sides; the smaller, round pieces are kept for the lid. The Leaf-cutte

it the climate is too damp, and besides, when the Bee-grub is hatched, it would be dangerous for it to have to climb so far through all sorts of rubbish to reach the surface. The Leaf-cutter, therefore, uses only the front part of the Worm'

eaves, some dozens of pieces rolled into screws and fitting into each other. You can see that the insect has cut out

and oval pieces, as we have seen; oval for the sides, round for the lid. There are two sizes of ovals, the larger ones

s they are needed. She is especially careful about the bottom of the bag. As the natural curve of the larger pieces is no

so exactly by the careful Bee that the edges of the cover rest upon the

noticed at the beginning when she was fencing off the back part of the Earthworm's too-deep burrow; she cuts out of the foliage irregular pieces of different shapes and sizes; and

ce curves by swaying her body, even as our arm traces a circle by swinging from the shoulder. This explanation might do if she made only one size of oval; but she makes two, large and small. A pair of compasses which changes its radius of its own accord and alters the curve according to the plan before it appears to me an instrument somewhat difficult to believe in. Besides, the Bee cuts out round pieces also. These r

ly, it would slip down on the honey and suffocate the egg. The Bee does not hesitate a moment. She cuts out her circle as quickly as she would

fire, whose cheerful blaze unloosed our tongues,

-day and one of you will be going to Orange to buy the week's provisions. Would she undertake, without a measure of any kind, with the sole aid of memory, which we would allow her to

at least a bit of string giving the width. Our memory for sizes is not accurate enough. She would come back from

e carries in her mind

ts as something of a guide to our memory by comparison; she must, without hesitation, far away from her home, cut out a disk that fits the top of her jar. What is impossible to us is child's play to her. Wher

nd lid as an addition to the many other marvels of instinct that cannot be expl