ways remain open
to give the swarm entire liberty to go in and out as it pleases.
The glass tubes and the reed-stumps are laid here and there, in fine
disorder, close to the heap of cocoons and all in a horizontal position,
for the Osmia will have nothing to do with upright reeds. The hatching
of some of the Osmiae will therefore take place under cover of the
galleries destined to be the building-yard later; and the site will be
all the more deeply impressed on their memory. When I have made these
comprehensive arrangements, there is nothing more to be done; and I wait
patiently for the building-season to open.

My Osmiae leave their cocoons in the second half of April. Under the
immediate rays of the sun, in well-sheltered nooks, the hatching would
occur a month earlier, as we can see from the mixed population of
the snowy almond-tree. The constant shade in my study has delayed the
awakening, without, however, making any change in the nesting-period,
which synchronizes with the flowering of the thyme. We now have, around
my working-table, my books, my jars and my various appliances, a buzzing
crowd that goes in and out of the windows at every moment. I enjoin the
household henceforth not to touch a thing in the insects' laboratory, to
do no more sweeping, no more dusting. They might disturb the swarm and
make it think that my hospitality was not to be trusted. I suspect that
the maid, wounded in her self-esteem at seeing so much dust accumulating
in the master's study, did not always respect my prohibitions and came
in stealthily, now and again, to give a little sweep of the broom.
At any rate, I came across a number of Osmiae who seemed to have been
crushed under foot while taking a sunbath on the floor in front of the
window. Perhaps it was I myself who committed the misdeed in a heedless
moment. There is no great harm done, for the population is a numerous
one; and, notwithstanding those crushed by inadvertence, notwithstanding
the parasites wherewith many of the cocoons are infested,
notwithstanding those who may have come to grief outside or been unable
to find their way back, notwithstanding the deduction of one-half which
we must make for the males: notwithstanding all this, during four or
five weeks I witness the work of a number of Osmiae which is much too
large to allow of my watching their individual operations. I content
myself with a few, whom I mark with different-coloured spots to
distinguish them; and I