30
THE ESSEX NATURALIST.
that it had a good view of the entrance ; no sooner had the
owner left than it entered and, passing rapidly to the cell at the
bottom of the tube, proceeded to lay an egg. All would have
gone well, or ill, according to the point of view, had not the
owner returned, this time without a leaf portion. At once a
desperate conflict took place. The pirate, on turning, was seized
by the neck and dragged towards the entrance, but when negoti-
ating the bend at the top of the tube it managed to release itself,
and fell, somewhat exhausted, to the bottom, the other following.
This performance was repeated several times, the pirate attempt-
ing to use its sting but without success. Sometimes the two
bees stopped midway to rest. The battle continued for some
time, until the owner left the nest, perhaps to get a little liquid
refreshment. The other, though much exhausted, managed
to struggle to the entrance, where it met a more formidable enemy,
in the shape of a pair of forceps ; it then realized that the way
of transgressors is hard. The owner was not long absent ; it
returned in a state of great excitement, the piece of leaf closing
the cell was torn from its position, carried to the entrance and
thrown out. The bee then returned and apparently chewed up
everything in the cell, including its own egg. One might say
it left no stone unturned in its efforts to get rid of the pirate's
egg. After a short rest it brought more pollen and laid another
egg.
I do not like advancing theories on too slender evidence, but
it seems fairly conclusive that the apparently meaningless return
of the bee during this particular period in nest construction, is
for the purpose of intercepting the pirate and, if possible, remedy-
ing the mischief done during its absence.
I timed the bee on several occasions and found it took twenty
seconds from the time it left the nest until it returned with a
leaf portion ; the rose tree from which it was cut was about
nine yards distant. The leaves were invariably placed with the
smooth upper surface to the inside of the cell. To accomplish
this the bee has to reverse the leaf in the tube, owing to the fact
that it is curved in the opposite direction between the legs of
the bee when brought into the tube, a feat that is deftly and
quickly performed. In fine weather the average work done
was three complete cells in two days.
If the shutter was open when a bee arrived, the strong light