at the working bee,
finding an egg deposited, commences a fresh cell for her own progeny."

He has, however, found two specimens of Nomada, sexfasciata in the cells
of the long-horned bee, Eucera longicornis. He also states, that while
some species are constant in their attacks on certain Halicti and
Andrenae, others attack different species of these genera
indiscriminately. In like manner another Cuckoo bee (Coelioxys) is
parasitic on Megachile and Saropoda; Stelis is a parasite on Osmia, the
Mason bee: and Melecta infests the cells of Anthophora.

The observations of Mr. Emerton enable us still further to clear up the
history of this obscure visitor. He found both the larva and pupa, as
well as the perfect bee, in the cells of both genera; so that either
both kinds of bee, when hatched from eggs laid in the same cell, feed on
the same pollen mass, which therefore barely suffices for the
nourishment of both; or the hostess, discovering the strange egg laid,
cuckoo-like, in her own nest, has the forethought to deposit another
ball of pollen to secure the safety of her young.

Is such an act the operation of a blind instinct? Does it not rather
ally our little bee with those higher animals which undoubtedly possess
a reasoning power? Its _instinct_ teaches it to build cells, and prepare
its pollen mass, and lay an egg thereon. Its _reason_ enables it, in
such an instance as this, when the life of the brood is threatened, to
guard against any such danger by means to which it does not habitually
resort. This instance is paralleled by the case of our common summer
Yellow bird, which, on finding an egg of the Cow bunting in its nest,
often builds a new nest above it, to the certain destruction of the
unwelcome egg in the nest beneath.

In the structure of the bee, and in all its stages of growth, our
parasite seems lower in the zooelogical scale than its host. It is
structurally a degraded form of Working-bee, and its position socially
is unenviable. It is lazy, not having the provident habits of the
Working-bees; it aids not in the least, so far as we know, the
cross-fertilization of plants--one great office in the economy of nature
which most bees perform,--since it is not a pollen-gatherer, but on the
contrary is seemingly a drag and hinderance to the course of nature. But
yet nature kindly, and as if by a special interposition, provides for
its maintenance, and the humble naturalist can only exclaim, "God is
great, a