The wonderful ingenuity of bees has often been remarked. The rose-cutter separates circular pieces from leaves with precision, and, digging a hole six or eight inches deep in the ground, the bee rolls up the leaf, and depositing it in the hole, lodges and secures an egg in it, with food for the larva when hatched, and often several, but all separated, and very perfect, and the bee then presides in the upper part to protect her brood. The upholsterer makes a hole enlarged at the bottom, and lines the whole with red poppy leaves, lays her eggs, supplies them with food, &c., separately, then turns down the lining to cover them, and closing the hole, leaves them to nature. The wood-piercer makes a perpendicular hole with vast labor in a decaying tree, in the sunshine, a foot deep; then deposits her eggs and food, and separates each by a dwarf wall made of sawdust and gluten, each higher than the other, and the last closing the hole; and she then makes another hole horizontally, to enable them to escape as they successively mature. The mason-bee constructs a nest on the side of a sunny wall, makes up sand pellets with gluten, and by persevering industry fixes and finishes a cell, in which it lays an egg and provisions. It then forms others beside it, and covers in the whole, the structure being as firm as the stone. Wasps and humble-bees make cavities in banks. They line them with wax, and make innumerable cells for their eggs in perfect communities.

BABYLON, NINEVEH, AND MR. LAYARD.

(Continued from page 55.)

GRAND ENTRANCE TO THE PALACE OF KONYUNJIK.

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Mr. Layard, having a small amount of money at his disposal, proceeded to make excavations at Konyunjik, opposite Mosul, where the first Assyrian Sculptures had been found. In a month, nine chambers had been explored. The palace had been destroyed by fire. The alabaster slabs were almost reduced to lime, and many of them fell to pieces as soon as uncovered. In its architecture, the newly-discovered edifice resembled the palaces of Nimroud and Khorsobad. The chambers were long and narrow. The walls were of unbaked bricks, with a panelling of sculptured slabs. The bas-reliefs were greatly inferior in general design, and in the beauty of the details, to those of the earliest palace of Nimroud.

The funds assigned to the Trustees of the British Museum for the excavations in Assyria had now been expended by Mr. Layard. He had every reason to congratulate himself upon the results of his labors. Scarcely a year before, with the exception of the ruins of Khorsobad, not one Assyrian monument was known. Almost sufficient materials had now been obtained to restore much of the lost history of the country, and to confirm the vague traditions of the learning and civilization of its people, hitherto considered fabulous. The monuments had been carefully preserved, and the inscriptions in the cuneiform character copied entire. Bidding his workmen an affectionate farewell, and receiving their best wishes for his future prosperity, Mr. Layard left the ancient Assyria for England.