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Preface vii
Web Research Each chapter offers web research activities that encourage students to
further study the topics introduced in the chapter.
Focus on Web Design Most chapters offer additional activities that explore the web
design topics related to the chapter. These activities can be used to reinforce, extend, and
enhance the course topics.
FAQs In the author’s web development courses, she is frequently asked similar questions
by students. They are included in this textbook and are marked with the identifying FAQ logo.
Checkpoints Each chapter contains two or three Checkpoints, which are groups of
questions to be used by students to self-assess their understanding of the material. A
special Checkpoint icon appears with each group of questions.
Focus on Ethics Ethics issues related to web development are highlighted through-
out the textbook and are marked with the special ethics icon shown here.
Reference Materials The appendixes in the Web Developer’s Handbook offer ref-
erence materials, including an HTML5 Quick Reference, an XHTML Quick Reference,
Special Entity Characters, Comparison of XHTML and HTML5, a CSS Property Reference,
a WCAG 2.0 Quick Reference, an FTP Tutorial, and a Web-Safe Color Palette.
VideoNotes VideoNotes are Pearson’s new visual tool designed for teaching students
key programming concepts and techniques. These short step-by-step videos demon-
VideoNote
strate how to solve problems from design through coding. VideoNotes allow for self-placed
instruction with easy navigation including the ability to select, play, rewind, fast-forward,
and stop within each VideoNote exercise.
Margin icons in your textbook let you know when a VideoNote video is available for a
particular concept or homework problem.
Supplemental Materials
Student Resources The student files for the web page exercises, Website Case
Study assignments, and access to the book’s VideoNotes are available to all readers of
this textbook at its companion website http://www.pearsonhighered.com/felke-morris. A
complimentary access code for the companion website is available with a new copy of this
textbook. Subscriptions may also be purchased online.
• Test questions
• PowerPoint® presentations
• Sample syllabi
Author’s Website In addition to the publisher’s companion website for this textbook,
the author maintains a website at http://www.webdevfoundations.net. This website contains
additional resources, including review activities and a page for each chapter with exam-
ples, links, and updates. This website is not supported by the publisher.
Acknowledgments
Very special thanks go to all the folks at Pearson, especially Michael Hirsch,
Matt Goldstein, Carole Snyder, Camille Trentacoste, and Scott Disanno.
Thank you to the following people who provided comments and suggestions that were
useful for this eighth edition and previous editions:
Carolyn Andres—Richland College
James Bell—Central Virginia Community College
Ross Beveridge—Colorado State University
Karmen Blake—Spokane Community College
Jim Buchan—College of the Ozarks
Dan Dao—Richland College
Joyce M. Dick—Northeast Iowa Community College
Elizabeth Drake—Santa Fe Community College
Mark DuBois—Illinois Central College
Genny Espinoza—Richland College
Carolyn Z. Gillay—Saddleback College
Sharon Gray—Augustana College
Tom Gutnick—Northern Virginia Community College
Jason Hebert—Pearl River Community College
Sadie Hébert—Mississippi Gulf Coast College
Lisa Hopkins—Tulsa Community College
Barbara James—Richland Community College
Nilofar Kadivi—Richland Community College
Jean Kent—Seattle Community College
Mary Keramidas—Sante Fe College
Karen Kowal Wiggins—Wisconsin Indianhead Technical College
Manasseh Lee—Richland Community College
Nancy Lee—College of Southern Nevada
Kyle Loewenhagen—Chippewa Valley Technical College
Michael J. Losacco—College of DuPage
Les Lusk—Seminole Community College
Mary A. McKenzie—Central New Mexico Community College
Bob McPherson—Surry Community College
Cindy Mortensen—Truckee Meadows Community College
John Nadzam—Community College of Allegheny County
Teresa Nickeson—University of Dubuque
Brita E. Penttila—Wake Technical Community College
Anita Philipp—Oklahoma City Community College
A special thank you also goes to Jean Kent, North Seattle Community College, and Teresa
Nickeson, University of Dubuque, for taking time to provide additional feedback and
sharing student comments about the book.
Thanks are in order to colleagues at William Rainey Harper College for their support and
encouragement, especially Ken Perkins, Enrique D’Amico, and Dave Braunschweig.
Most of all, I would like to thank my family for their patience and encouragement. My
wonderful husband, Greg Morris, has been a constant source of love, understanding,
support, and encouragement. Thank you, Greg! A big shout-out to my children, James and
Karen, who grew up thinking that everyone’s Mom had their own website. Thank you both
for your understanding, patience, and timely suggestions! And, finally, a very special
dedication to the memory of my father who is greatly missed.
5
Portable Network Graphic (PNG) Images 144
New WebP Image Format 144
Chapter
4.3 Image Element 145
Accessibility and Images 146
Web Design 205
Image Hyperlinks 147 5.1 Design for Your Target Audience 206
Accessibility and Image Hyperlinks 149 5.2 Website Organization 207
4.4 HTML5 Visual Elements 150 Hierarchical Organization 207
HTML5 Figure and Figcaption Elements 151 Linear Organization 208
HTML5 Meter Element 153 Random Organization 208
HTML5 Progress Element 153 5.3 Principles of Visual Design 209
4.5 Background Images 154 Repetition: Repeat Visual Components
The background-image Property 154 Throughout the Design 209
Browser Display of a Background Image 154 Contrast: Add Visual Excitement and Draw
Attention 209
The background-repeat Property 155
Proximity: Group Related Items 210
The background-position Property 157
Alignment: Align Elements to Create Visual
The background-attachment Property 158
Unity 210
4.6 More About Images 158
5.4 Design to Provide Accessibility 210
Image Maps 158
Who Benefits from Universal Design and
The Favorites Icon 160 Increased Accessibility? 211
Configuring a Favorites Icon 160 Accessible Design Can Benefit Search Engine
Image Slicing 162 Listing 211
CSS Sprites 162 Accessibility is the Right Thing
4.7 Sources and Guidelines for Graphics 162 to Do 211
Sources of Graphics 162 5.5 Writing for the Web 212
Guidelines for Using Images 163 Organize Your Content 212
Accessibility and Visual Elements 164 Choosing a Font 213
7
Focus on Web Design 355
Website Case Study 356
Chapter
More on Links, Layout, and
Mobile 307 Chapter 8
7.1 Another Look at Hyperlinks 308 Tables 371
More on Relative Linking 308 8.1 Table Overview 372
Relative Link Examples 308 Table Element 372
Fragment Identifiers 310 The border Attribute 373
Landmark Roles with ARIA 312 Table Captions 373
The Target Attribute 312 8.2 Table Rows, Cells, and Headers 374
Block Anchor 313 Table Row Element 374
Telephone and Text Message Hyperlinks 313 Table Data Element 374
7.2 CSS Sprites 313 Table Header Element 374
7.3 Three-Column CSS Page Layout 316 8.3 Span Rows and Columns 376
7.4 CSS Styling for Print 322 The colspan Attribute 376
Print Styling Best Practices 323 The rowspan Attribute 376
7.5 Designing for the Mobile Web 327 8.4 Configure an Accessible Table 378
Mobile Web Design Best Practices 328 8.5 Style a Table with CSS 380
7.6 Viewport Meta Tag 330 8.6 CSS3 Structural Pseudo-Classes 382
9
Review Questions 434
Apply Your Knowledge 435
Chapter Hands-On Exercises 437
Web Research 438
Forms 399
Focus on Web Design 439
9.1 Overview of Forms 400 Website Case Study 440
Form Element 400
10
Form Controls 401
9.2 Input Element Form Controls 401
Chapter
Text Box 402
Submit Button 403 Web Development 451
Reset Button 403
10.1 Successful Large-Scale Project
Check Box 405
Development 452
Radio Button 406
Project Job Roles 452
Hidden Input Control 407
Project Staffing Criteria 453
Password Box 408
10.2 The Development Process 453
9.3 Scrolling Text Box 408 Conceptualization 455
Textarea Element 408
Analysis 456
9.4 Select List 411 Design 456
Select Element 411 Production 458
Option Element 412 Testing 458
9.5 Image Buttons and the Button Launch 461
Element 413 Maintenance 462
Image Button 413 Evaluation 462
Button Element 413 10.3 Domain Name Overview 462
9.6 Accessibility and Forms 414 Choosing a Domain Name 462
Label Element 414 Registering a Domain Name 463
Fieldset and Legend Elements 416 10.4 Web Hosting 464
The tabindex Attribute 418 Web Hosting Providers 464
The accesskey Attribute 418
10.5 Choosing a Virtual Host 465
9.7 Style a Form with CSS 419
Chapter Summary 468
9.8 Server-Side Processing 420 Key Terms 468
Privacy and Forms 423 Review Questions 468
Server-Side Processing Resources 423 Hands-On Exercises 469
9.9 HTML5 Form Controls 424 Web Research 471
E-mail Address Input 424 Focus on Web Design 472
URL Input 425 Website Case Study 472
12
Provide a Hyperlink 476
Working with Multimedia on the Web 477
Chapter
11.3 Adobe Flash 479
HTML5 Embed Element 479 E-Commerce Overview 517
Flash Resources 481 12.1 What Is E-Commerce? 518
11.4 HTML5 Audio and Video Elements 482 Advantages of E-Commerce 518
Audio Element 482 Risks of E-Commerce 519
Source Element 483 12.2 E-Commerce Business
HTML5 Audio on a Web Page 483 Models 520
Video Element 484 12.3 Electronic Data Interchange
Source Element 485 (EDI) 520
HTML5 Video on a Web Page 485
12.4 E-Commerce Statistics 520
11.5 M
ultimedia Files and Copyright
Law 487 12.5 E-Commerce Issues 521
11.6 CSS and Interactivity 487 12.6 E-Commerce Security 523
Encryption 523
CSS Drop Down Menu 487
Integrity 524
CSS3 Transform Property 489
Secure Sockets Layer (SSL) 524
CSS3 Rotate Transform 490
Digital Certificate 525
CSS3 Scale Transform 490
SSL and Digital Certificates 526
CSS Transition Property 490
Practice with Transitions 493 12.7 Order and Payment Processing 526
Credit Card 527
11.7 Java 495
Stored-value Card 527
Adding a Java Applet to a
Web Page 496 Digital Wallet 527
Java Applet Resources 498 Digital Cash 527
13
Review Questions 564
13.7 Link Popularity 556 14.6 Events and Event Handlers 581
●● Describe the evolution of the Internet and ●● Identify ethical use of the Web
the Web ●● Describe the purpose of web browsers and
●● Explain the need for web standards web servers
●● Describe universal design ●● Identify networking protocols
●● Identify benefits of accessible web design ●● Define URIs and domain names
●● Identify reliable resources of information on ●● Describe HTML, XHTML, and HTML5
the Web ●● Describe popular trends in the use of the Web
The Internet and the Web are parts of our daily lives. How did they
begin? What networking protocols and programming languages work behind the
scenes to display a web page? This chapter provides an introduction to some of
these topics and is a foundation for the information that web developers need to
know. You’ll be introduced to Hypertext Markup Language (HTML), the language
used to create web pages.
Convergence of Technologies
By the early 1990s, personal computers with easy-to-use graphical operating systems (such
as Microsoft’s Windows, IBM’s OS/2, and Apple’s Macintosh OS) were increasingly available
and affordable. Online service providers such as CompuServe, AOL, and Prodigy offered
low-cost connections to the Internet. Figure 1.1 depicts this convergence of available com-
puter hardware, easy-to-use operating systems, low-cost Internet connectivity, the HTTP
protocol and HTML language, and a graphical browser that made information on the Inter-
net much easier to access. The World Wide Web—the graphical user interface to informa-
tion stored on computers running web servers connected to the Internet—had arrived!
The IAB is a committee of the IETF and provides guidance and broad direction to the IETF. As
a function of this purpose, the IAB is responsible for the publication of the Request for Com-
ments (RFC) document series. An RFC is a formal document from the IETF that is drafted by
a committee and subsequently reviewed by interested parties. RFCs are available for online
review at http://www.ietf.org/rfc.html. Some RFCs are informational in nature, while others are
meant to become Internet standards. In the latter case, the final version of the RFC becomes
a new standard. Future changes to the standard must be made through subsequent RFCs.
The Internet Corporation for Assigned Numbers and Names (ICANN), http://www.icann.org,
was created in 1998 and is a nonprofit organization. Its main function is to coordinate the
assignment of Internet domain names, IP address numbers, protocol parameters, and pro-
tocol port numbers. Prior to 1998, the Internet Assigned Numbers Authority (IANA) coordi-
nated these functions. IANA still performs certain functions under the guidance of ICANN
and maintains a website at http://www.iana.org.
W3C Recommendations
The W3C Recommendations are created in working groups with input from many major cor-
porations involved in building web technologies. These recommendations are not rules; they
are guidelines. Major software companies that build web browsers, such as Microsoft, do not
always follow the W3C Recommendations. This makes life challenging for web developers
because not all browsers will display a web page in exactly the same way. The good news
is that there is a convergence toward the W3C Recommendations in new versions of major
browsers. You’ll follow W3C Recommendations as you code web pages in this book. Follow-
ing the W3C Recommendations is the first step toward creating a website that is accessible.
open automatically for people with mobility challenges also benefit people carrying pack-
ages. A ramp is useful for a person in a wheelchair, a person dragging a rolling backpack
or carry-on bag, and so on.
Awareness of universal design by web developers has been steadily increasing. Forward-
thinking web developers design with accessibility in mind because it is the right thing to
do. Providing access for visitors with visual, auditory, and other challenges should be an
integral part of web design rather than an afterthought.
A person with visual difficulties may not be able to use graphical navigation buttons and may
use a screen reader device to provide an audible description of the web page. By making a
few simple changes, such as providing text descriptions for the images and perhaps providing
a text navigation area at the bottom of the page, web developers can make the page accessi-
ble. Often, providing for accessibility increases the usability of the website for all visitors.
Accessible websites, with alternative text for images, headings used in an organized man-
ner, and captions or transcriptions for multimedia features, are more easily used not only
Focus on
Accessibility by visitors with disabilities, but also by visitors using a browser on a mobile device such as
a phone or tablet. Finally, accessible websites may be more thoroughly indexed by search
engines, which can be helpful in bringing new visitors to a site. As this text introduces web
development and design techniques, corresponding web accessibility and usability issues are
discussed.
Réaumur has dedicated one of his studies to the Chalicodoma of walls, which
he calls the Mason Bee. I propose to resume this study, to complete it, and
especially to consider it from a point of view entirely neglected by that illustrious
observer. And first of all I am tempted to state how I made acquaintance with this
Hymenopteron. It was when I first began to teach—towards a.d. 1843. On
leaving the Normal School of Vaucluse a few months previously, with my
certificate, and the naïve enthusiasm of eighteen, I was sent to Carpentras to
manage the primary school belonging to the college. A singular school it was,
upon my word, notwithstanding its fine title of “Upper”!—a kind of vast cellar
breathing out the damp engendered by a fountain backing on it in the street.
Light came in through a door opening outward when the weather allowed of it,
and a narrow prison-window, with iron-bars, and little diamond panes set in lead.
For seats there was a plank fastened to the walls all round the room; in the
middle was a chair guiltless of straw, a blackboard, and a bit of chalk. [272]
Morning and evening, at the sound of a bell, there tumbled in some fifty young
rascals, who, having failed to master De viris and the Epitome, were devoting
themselves, as one said then, to “some good years of French.” The failures at
“Rosa, a Rose,” came to me to learn a little spelling. Children were mingled with
tall lads at various stages of education, and all distressingly agreed in playing
tricks on the master—no older, even younger, than some of themselves.
I taught the little ones to read syllables, the middle ones to hold a pen in the right
way while writing a few words of dictation on their knees; for the eldest I unveiled
the secrets of fractions, and even the mysteries of the hypotenuse. And the only
means I had to keep this restless crowd in order, give each mind appropriate
food, arouse attention, expel dulness from the gloomy room whose very walls
dripped melancholy, were my tongue and a bit of chalk.
For that matter there was equal disdain in the other classes for all which was not
Latin or Greek. One instance will suffice to show the style in which physical
science was treated, now so large a part of education. The principal of this
college was an excellent man—the worthy Abbé X, who, not anxious himself to
grow green peas and bacon, turned over such matters to some relation of his,
and undertook to teach physical science.
[To face p. 272.
MASON BEES—CHALICODOMA MURARIA ON OLD NEST
Thus were physics taught. Things mended, however; a master came, and came
to stay,—one who knew that the long branch of a barometer is [274]closed. I
obtained tables on which my pupils could write instead of scrawling on their
knees, and as my class grew daily larger, it ended by being divided. As soon as I
had an assistant to look after the younger ones, things changed for the better.
Among the subjects taught, one pleased master and pupils equally. This was
out-of-door geometry, practical surveying. The college had none of the
necessary outfit, but with my large emoluments—700 francs, if you please!—I
could not hesitate as to making the outlay. A measuring chain and stakes, a
level, square, and compass were bought at my expense. A tiny graphometer,
hardly bigger than one’s palm, and worth about 4s. 2d., was furnished by the
college. We had no tripod, and I had one made. In short, my outfit was complete.
When May came, once a week the gloomy class-room was exchanged for the
fields, and we all felt it as a holiday. There were disputes as to the honour of
carrying the stakes, divided into packets of three, and more than one shoulder
as we went through the town felt glorified in the sight of all by the learned
burden. I myself—why conceal it?—was not without a certain satisfaction at
carrying tenderly the most precious part of the apparatus, the famous four-and-
twopenny graphometer. The scene of operations was an uncultivated pebbly
plain—a harmas, as we call it in these parts. No curtain of live hedge, no
bushes, hindered me from keeping an eye upon my followers; here—an all
important condition—I need not fear temptation from green apricots for my
scholars. There was free scope for all imaginable [275]polygons; trapezes and
triangles might be joined at will. Wide distances suggested plenty of elbow room,
and there was even an ancient building, once a dovecote, which lent its vertical
lines to the service of the graphometer.
Now from the very first a suspicious something caught my attention. If a scholar
were sent to plant a distant stake I saw him frequently pause, stoop, rise, seek
about, and stoop again, forgetful of straight line and of signals. Another, whose
work it was to pick up pegs, forgot the iron spike and took a pebble instead; and
a third, deaf to the measurements of the angle, crumbled up a clod. The greater
number were caught licking a bit of straw, and polygons stood still, and
diagonals came to grief. What could be the mystery? I inquired, and all was
explained. Searcher and observer born, the scholar was well aware of what the
master was ignorant of—namely, that a great black bee makes earthen nests on
the pebbles of the harmas, and that in these nests there is honey. My surveyors
were opening and emptying the cells with a straw. I was instructed in the proper
method. The honey, though somewhat strong-flavoured, is very acceptable; I in
turn acquired a taste for it, and joined the nest-hunters. Later, the polygon was
resumed. Thus it was that for the first time I saw Réaumur’s Mason Bee,
knowing neither its history nor its historian.
This splendid Hymenopteron, with its dark violet wings and costume of black
velvet, its rustic constructions on the sun-warmed pebbles among the thyme, its
honey, which brought diversion from the severities [276]of compass and square,
made a strong impression on my mind, and I wished to know more about it than
my pupils had taught me—namely, how to rob the cells of their honey with a
straw. Just then my bookseller had for sale a magnificent work on insects, The
Natural History of Articulated Animals, by de Castelnau, E. Blanchard, and
Lucas. It was enriched with many engravings which caught the eye. But alas, it
had a price—such a price! What did that matter? My 700 francs ought surely to
suffice for everything—food for the mind as well as for the body. That which I
bestowed on the one I retrenched from the other—a balance of accounts to
which whoever takes science for a livelihood must needs resign himself. The
purchase was made. That day I bled my university stipend abundantly; I paid
away a whole month of it. It took a miracle of parsimony to fill up the enormous
deficit.
The book was devoured—I can use no other word. There I learned the name of
my black bee, and there I read for the first time details of the habits of insects,
and found, with what seemed to my eyes an aureole round them, the venerated
names of Réaumur, Huber, Léon Dufour; and while I turned the pages for the
hundredth time, a voice whispered vaguely, “Thou too shalt be a historian of
animals!” Naïve illusions! where are you? But let us banish these recollections,
both sweet and sad, and come to the doings of our black bee.
As Réaumur tells us, C. muraria in the northern provinces chooses as the place
to fix her nest a wall well exposed to the sun and not plastered, as the plaster
might come off and endanger her cells. She only entrusts her constructions to a
solid foundation, such as a bare stone. I see that she is equally [278]prudent in
the south, but, for some reason unknown to me, she generally chooses some
other base than the stone of a wall. A rolled pebble, often hardly larger than
one’s fist,—one of those with which the waters of the glacial period covered the
terraces of the Rhône valley,—is her favourite support. The great ease with
which such a one is found may influence her; all our slightly raised plateaux, all
our arid thyme-clad ground, are but heaped pebbles cemented with red earth. In
the valleys the bee can also use the stones gathered in torrent beds; near
Orange, for instance, her favourite spots are the alluviums of the Aygues, with
their stretches of rolled boulders no longer visited by water. Or if a pebble be
wanting, she will establish her nest on a boundary stone or an enclosing wall.
Chalicodoma sicula has a yet greater variety of choice. Her favourite position is
under a tile projecting from the edge of a roof. There is scarcely a little dwelling
in the fields that does not thus shelter her nests. There, every spring, she
establishes populous colonies, whose masonry, transmitted from one generation
to another, and yearly enlarged, finally covers a very considerable surface. I
have seen such a one under the tiles of a shed, which spread over five or six
square yards. When the colony were hard at work, their number and humming
fairly made one dizzy. The underpart of a balcony pleases them equally, or the
frame of an unused window,—above all, if closed by a sun-shutter, which offers
a free passage. But these are great meeting-places, where labour, each for
herself, hundreds and thousands of workers. If alone, which not seldom occurs,
Chalicodoma [279]sicula establishes herself in the first little spot she can find, so
long as it has a solid basis and heat. As for the nature of this basis it matters
little. I have seen nests built on bare stones and brick, on a shutter, and even on
the glass panes in a shed. One thing only does not suit the bee—namely, the
stucco of our houses. Prudent, like her retainer C. muraria, she would fear ruin
to her cells did she entrust them to a support which might fall.
Finally, for reasons which I cannot yet satisfactorily explain, C. sicula often
entirely changes her manner of building, turning her heavy mortar dwelling,
which seems to require a rock to support it, into an aerial one, hung to a bough.
A bush in a hedge,—no matter what—hawthorn, pomegranate, or Paliurus,—
offers a support, usually about the height of a man, Ilex and elm give a greater
height. The bee chooses in some thicket a bough about as thick as a straw, and
constructs her edifice on this narrow base with the same mortar which would be
used under a balcony or the projecting edge of a roof. When finished, the nest is
a ball of earth, traversed literally by the bough. If made by a single insect it is the
size of an apricot, and of a fist if several have worked at it; but this seldom
occurs.
Both species use the same materials, a calcareous clay, mixed with a little sand
and kneaded with the mason’s own saliva. Damp spots which would facilitate
labour and spare saliva to mix mortar are disdained by the Chalicodoma, which
refuses fresh earth for building, just as our builders refuse old plaster and lime.
Such materials when soaked with humidity would not hold properly. What is
needed is a dry [280]powder, which readily absorbs the disgorged saliva, and
forms with the albuminous principles of this liquid a kind of Roman cement,
hardening quickly,—something like what we obtain with quicklime and white of
egg.
[To face p. 280.
MASON BEES—CHALICODOMA SICULA AND NEST
After choosing a boulder, she comes with a pellet of mortar in her mandibles,
and arranges it in a ring on the surface of the pebble. The forefeet, and above all
the mandibles, which are her most important tools, work the material, which is
kept plastic by the gradually disgorged saliva. To consolidate the unbaked clay,
angular pieces of gravel, as large as a small bean, are worked in singly on the
outside of the still soft mass. This is the foundation of the edifice. Other layers
are added until the cell has the required height of three or four centimetres. The
masonry is formed by stones laid on one another and cemented with lime, and
can stand comparison with our own. True, to economise labour and mortar, the
bee uses coarse materials,—large bits of gravel, which in her case answer to
hewn blocks. They are chosen singly—very hard ones, almost always with
angles which, fitted together, give mutual support, and add solidity to the whole.
Layers of mortar, sparingly used, hold them together. The outside of the cell thus
assumes the look of a piece of rustic architecture, in which stones project with
their natural inequalities; but over the inside, which requires a smoother surface
in order not to wound the tender skin of the larva, is spread a wash of pure
mortar—artlessly, however, as if by broad sweeps of a trowel; and when it has
eaten up its honey paste, the grub [282]takes care to make a cocoon and hang
the rude wall of its abode with silk. The Anthophora and Halictus, whose larvæ
spin no cocoon, varnish the inside of their earthen cells delicately, giving them
the polish of worked ivory.
The construction, the axis of which is always nearly vertical, with an orifice
opening upward, so that the fluid honey may not run out, differs a little in form,
according to its basis. On a horizontal surface it rises like a little oval tower; on a
vertical or slanting one it resembles half a thimble cut down its length. In this
case the support—the pebble itself—completes the surrounding wall. The cell
completed, the bee sets to work at once to store it. The neighbouring flowers,
especially those of Genista scorpius, which in May turn the alluviums of the
torrents golden, furnish sugared liquid and pollen. She comes with her crop
swelled with honey, and all yellow underneath with pollen dust, and plunges
head first into the cell, where for some moments one may see her work her body
in a way which tells that she is disgorging honey. Her crop emptied, she comes
out, but only to go in again at once—this time backwards. With her two hind feet
she now frees herself from her load, of pollen by brushing herself underneath.
Again she goes out, and returns head first. She must stir the materials with her
mandibles for a spoon, and mix all thoroughly together. This labour of mixing is
not repeated after every journey, but only from time to time, when a considerable
quantity has been collected. When the cell is half full, it is stored; an egg must
be laid on the honey paste, and the door [283]has to be closed. This is all done
without delay. The orifice is closed by a cover of undiluted mortar, worked from
the circumference to the centre. Two days at most seem required for the whole
work, unless bad weather or a cloudy day should interrupt it. Then, backing on
the first cell, a second is built and stored in the same way, and a third and fourth,
etc., follow, each one with honey and an egg, and closed before another is
begun. Work once begun is continued until it is completed, the bee never
building a new cell until the four acts required to perfect the preceding one are
performed—namely, construction, provisioning, an egg, and sealing the cell.
As Chalicodoma muraria always works alone on her chosen boulder, and shows
great jealousy if her neighbours alight there, the number of cells clustered on
one pebble is not great—usually six to ten. Are some eight larvæ her whole
progeny, or will she establish a more numerous family on other boulders? The
surface of the stone would allow of more cells if she had eggs for them, and the
bee might build there very comfortably without hunting for another, or leaving the
one to which she is attached by habit and long acquaintance. I think, therefore,
that most probably all her scanty family are settled on the same stone—at all
events when she builds a new abode.
The six or ten cells composing the group are certainly a solid dwelling, with their
rustic covering of gravel, but the thickness of their walls and lids—two
millimetres at most—hardly seems sufficient against rough weather. Set on its
stone in the open [284]air, quite unsheltered, the nest will undergo the heat of
summer suns which will turn every cell into an oven; then will come the autumn
rains which will slowly eat away the masonry, and then winter frosts which will
crumble what the rain may have respected. However hard the cement may be,
can it resist all these attacks, and if it can, will not the larvæ, sheltered by so thin
a wall, suffer from over-heat in summer and too keen cold in winter?
Without having gone through all these arguments, the bee acts wisely. When all
the cells are completed she builds a thick cover over the whole group, which,
being of a material impermeable to water and almost a non-conductor, is at once
a defence against heat and cold and damp. This material is the usual mortar,
made of earth and saliva, only with no small stones in it. The bee lays it on,—
one pellet after another, one trowelful and then a second,—till there is a layer a
centimetre thick over all the cells, which disappear entirely under it. The nest is
now a rude dome, about as big as half an orange; one would take it for a clod of
mud, half crushed by being flung against a stone where it had dried. Nothing
outside betrays its contents—no suggestion of cells—none of labour. To the
ordinary eye it is only a chance splash of mud.
This general cover dries as rapidly as do our hydraulic cements, and the nest is
almost as hard as a stone. A knife with a strong blade is needed to cut it. In its
final shape the nest recalls in no degree the original work; one would suppose
the elegant turrets adorned with pebble work, and the final dome, looking like a
bit of mud, to be the work of [285]two different species. But scratch away the
cover of cement and we recognise the cells and their layers of tiny pebbles.
Instead of building on a boulder yet unoccupied, Chalicodoma muraria likes to
utilise old nests which have lasted through the year without notable injury. The
mortared dome has remained much as it was at the beginning, so solid was the
masonry; only it is pierced by a number of round holes corresponding to the
chambers inhabited by the larvæ of the past generation. Such dwellings, only
needing a little repair to put them in good condition, economise much time and
toil; so Mason Bees seek them, and only undertake new constructions when old
nests fail them.
From the same dome come forth brothers and sisters—reddish males and black
females—all descendants of the same bee. The males lead a careless life,
avoiding all labour, and only returning to their clay dwellings for a brief courtship
of their ladies; and they care nothing for the deserted dwelling. What they want
is nectar from flower-cups, not mortar between their mandibles. But there are the
young mothers, who have sole charge of the future of the family—to which of
them will fall the inheritance of the old nest? As sisters they have an equal right
to it—so would human justice decide, now that it has made the enormous
progress of freeing itself from the old savage right of primogeniture; but Mason
Bees have not got beyond the primitive basis of property—the right of the first
comer.
So when the time to lay has come, a bee takes the first free nest which suits her
and establishes herself [286]there, and woe to any sister or neighbour who
thenceforward disputes possession of it. A hot reception and fierce pursuit would
soon put the new-comer to flight; only one cell is wanted at the moment out of all
which gape like little wells around the dome, but the bee calculates that by and
by the rest will be useful, and she keeps a jealous watch on them all and drives
away every visitor. I cannot remember having seen two Mason Bees working on
the same pebble.
The work is now very simple. The bee examines the inside of the old cell to see
where repairs are needed, tears down the rags of cocoon hanging on the walls,
carries out the bits of earth fallen from the vault pierced by the inhabitant in
order to get out, mortars any places out of repair, mends the orifice a little, and
that is all. Then comes storage, laying an egg, and stopping up the cell. When
these are successively completed, the general cover, the mortar dome, is
repaired if necessary, and all is finished.
As soon as a cell is built it is stored and walled up, as we have seen with
Chalicodoma muraria. This work goes on through the whole of May. At length all
the eggs are laid, and the bees, without any distinction as to what does or does
not belong to them, all set to work on a common shelter of the colony—a thick
bed of mortar, filling up spaces and covering all the cells. In the end the nests
look like a large mass of dry mud—very irregular, arched, thickest in the middle,
the primitive kernel of the establishment, thinnest at the edges, where there are
fewest cells, and very variable in extent, according to the number of workers,
and consequently to the time when the nest was begun. Some are not much
larger than one’s hand, while others will occupy the greater part of the edge of a
roof, and be measured by square yards. [288]
Built on small pebbles which one can carry whither one will, remove,
or interchange, without disturbing either the work of the constructor
or the quiet of the inhabitants of the cells, the nests of Chalicodoma
muraria lend themselves readily to experiment—the only method
capable of throwing a little light on the nature of instinct. Profitably to
study the physical faculties of the animal it is not enough to know
how to turn to account such circumstances as a happy chance may
offer to the observer: one must be capable of originating others, and
vary them as much as possible and submit them to mutual control; in
short, to give science a solid basis of fact one must experiment.
Then some day will vanish before the evidence of exact documents
the fantastic legends which cumber our books, such as the
Scarabæus inviting his comrades to help in dragging his ball out of a
rut, or a Sphex cutting up a fly to carry it in spite of the wind, and
much more which is misused by those who desire to see in the
animal world that which is not there. Thus, too, will materials be
prepared which, used sooner or later by a learned [290]hand, will cast
premature and baseless theories back into oblivion.