h. This forms a
sucking instrument, which the bees use for drinking nectar."

"My," exclaimed Peter, "it must be convenient to have two pairs of
jaws!"

"On the head, too, are antennae, which form little elbows, like those of
the ant. With these the bee smells and feels. Some bees have short
tongues, and usually live alone; others have long tongues, and generally
live in colonies. Perhaps a long tongue makes an insect sociable, and
perhaps sociability makes a tongue grow long."

The children were looking at their tongues to see which had the longest.
Peter scanned his anxiously. "Your tongue is awfully long, Pete," said
Jack.

"I know an interesting short-tongued bee who lives in a house by
herself. Her name is Andrena. She bores a hole in the ground, digging
out a wide hallway. From this she digs side passages, each one ending
in a little closed room. The walls of these rooms are hard and shiny,
like porcelain. When Andrena finishes her house she makes a nourishing
paste of nectar and pollen. Pollen is the yellow powder from flowers.
You know bees, by carrying about the pollen, help in fertilizing the
flowers. But of this we shall learn more some day when we are talking
about the flowers. This powder the bee packs down into the little rooms.
Then she lays an egg on each pile of food and builds a door to shut the
egg away safely."

"Do bees always feed their children on nectar and pollen?" asked Hope.

"Always," replied the old man. "They never feed their babies on other
insects, as the ants and wasps do. Then there are the little
short-tongued bees who live in apartments, the apartments all clustered
together, with a common wide passageway into the ground and separate
hallways. Around the main opening is an odd chimney, built on a slant,
which prevents the rain from pouring into the open doorway."

The children were wide-eyed with astonishment. That bees should build
chimneys was more than they could believe!

"Goodness!" said Jimmie, "if that is what a short-tongued bee can do,
what can a long-tongued bee do?"

"They are very clever. Some are carpenters, some masons, some miners,
some tailors. The leaf-cutter bee makes a neat home, covering the walls
with pretty, green leaves. First she digs a tunnel in a suitable branch
of wood; then she goes to a rosebush, cuts out an oval piece of a rose
leaf, and arranges it smoothly on the walls of the tunnel; cuts other
oval pieces and puts them on, fastening the edge