To lay the nest bare is not easy. The burrow penetrates to a depth of about three feet in a compact soil; sometimes in a vertical, sometimes in a horizontal direction. The spade and pick, wielded by hands more vigorous but less expert than my own, are indispensable; but the conduct of the excavation is anything but satisfactory. At the extremity of the long gallery--it seems as though the straw I use for sounding would never reach the end--we finally discover the cells, egg-shaped cavities with the longer axis horizontal. Their number and their mutual disposition escape me. Some already contain the cocoon--slender and translucid, like that of the Cerceris, and, like it, recalling the shape of certain homoeopathic phials, with oval bodies surmounted by a tapering neck. By the extremity of the neck, which is blackened and hardened by the dejecta of the larvae, the cocoon is fixed to the end of the cell without any other support. It reminds one of a short club, planted by the end of the handle, in a line with the horizontal axis of the cell. Other cells contain the larva in a stage more or less advanced. The grub is eating the last victim proffered; around it lie the remains of food already consumed. Others, again, show me a bee, a single bee, still intact, and having an egg deposited on the under-side of the thorax. This bee represents the first instalment of rations; others will follow as the grub matures. My expectations are thus confirmed; as with Bembex, slayer of Diptera, so Philanthus, killer of bees, lays her egg upon the first body stored, and completes, at intervals, the provisioning of the cells. The problem of the dead bee is elucidated; there remains the other problem, of incomparable interest--Why, before they are given over to the larvae, are the bees robbed of their honey? I have said, and I repeat, that the killing and emptying of the bee cannot be explained solely by the gluttony of the Philanthus. To rob the worker of its booty is nothing; such things are seen every day; but to slaughter it in order to empty its stomach--no, gluttony cannot be the only motive. And as the bees placed in the cells are squeezed dry no less than the others, the idea occurs to me that as a beefsteak garnished with _confitures_ is not to every one's taste, so the bee sweetened with honey may well be distasteful or even harmful to the larvae of the Philanthus. What would the grub do if, replete with blood and flesh, it were to find under its mandibles the honey-bag of the bee?--if, gnawing at random, it were to open the bees stomach and so drench its game with syrup? Would it approve of the mixture? Would the little ogre pass without repugnance from the gamey flavour of a corpse to the scent of flowers? To affirm or deny is useless. We must see. Let us see.