It might prove interesting to investigate this more minutely; and as the bee is by no means scarce in the neighbourhood of London, it might not be difficult for a careful observer to witness all the details of this singular architecture. Yet we have repeatedly endeavoured, but without success, to watch the bees, when loaded with down, to their nests. The bee may be readily known from its congeners, by its being about the size of the hive-bee, but more broad and flattened, blackish-brown above, with a row of six yellow or white spots along each side of the rings, very like the rose-leaf cutter, and having the belly covered with yellowish-brown hair, and the legs fringed with long hairs of a rather lighter colour. * * * * * [This bee does not bore a tunnel for herself, but occupies that of some other insect. The nests of this insect are generally to be obtained from old willows, because these trees are so largely bored by the goat-moth caterpillar, and afford ample space for the larva. The woolly substance obtained from the plant is pressed against the sides of the burrow, so as to form a lining. She then makes a series of cells of a similar material, and the young larva, when it is about to change into the pupa state, envelops itself in a silken covering of a brown colour. It is a curious fact, that the male of this insect is considerably larger than the female, thus reversing the usual order of things among insects. Only one species of this bee is known in England.] A common bee belonging to the family of upholsterers is called the rose-leaf cutter (_Megachile centuncularis_, Latr.). The singularly ingenious habits of this bee have long attracted the attention of naturalists; but the most interesting description is given by Réaumur. So extraordinary does the construction of their nests appear, that a French gardener having dug up some, and believing them to be the work of a magician, who had placed them in his garden with evil intent, sent them to Paris to his master, for advice as to what should be done by way of exorcism. On applying to the Abbé Nollet, the owner of the garden was soon persuaded that the nests in question were the work of insects; and M. Réaumur, to whom they were subsequently sent, found them to be the nests of one of the upholsterer-bees, and probably of the rose-leaf cutter, though the nests in question were made of the leaves of the mountain ash (_Pyrus aucuparia_).