HARDWICKE'S SCIENCE-GOSSIP. 



55 



Go, cease your howling— can we state 



In larger or in clearer print, 

 "That when the survey sheets appear, 

 Your work will stand out bright and clear." 



The Unofficial Vicio. 



That then it will shine bright and clear, 

 We venture to express a doubt ; 



And pardon us if we do fear 



The work you'll linger long about. 



At all events, we fain would try 



To get some praise before we die. 



Meanwhile 'tis you too greedy eat 



The modest amateurs' food ; 

 Come, let us fairly share the meat, 



'Tis on our banquet you intrude. 

 Big dogs ! you'd take our only bone. 

 Ah ! where have truth and justice flown ? 



A. Conifer. 



HUMBLE-BEES OX THE PAMPAS. 

 By W. H. Hudson. 



TWO humble-bees, Bombus thoracicus and B. 

 violaceus, are found on the pampas : the first, 

 with a primrose yellow thorax, and the extremity of 

 the abdomen bright rufous, slightly resembles the 

 English B. tcrrcstris ; the rarer species, which is a 

 trifle smaller than the first, is of a uniform intense 

 black, the body having the appearance of velvet, 

 the wings being of a deep violaceous blue. 



A census of the humble-bees in any garden or field 

 always shows that the yellow bees outnumber the 

 black in the proportion of about seven to one ; and I 

 have also found their nests for many years in the 

 same proportion ; — about seven nests of the yellow to 

 one nest of the black species. In habits they are 

 almost identical, and when two species so closely 

 allied are found inhabiting the same locality, it is only 

 reasonable to infer that one possesses some advantage 

 over the other, and that the least favoured species will 

 eventually disappear. In this case, where one so 

 greatly outnumbers the other, it might be thought 

 that the rarer species is dying out, or that, on the 

 contrary, it is a new-comer destined to supplant the 

 older more numerous species. Yet, during the twenty 

 years I have observed them, there has occurred no 

 change in their relative positions ; though both have 

 greatly increased in numbers during that time, owing 

 to the spread of cultivation. And yet it would 

 scarcely be too much to expect some marked change 

 in a period so- long as that, even through the slow- 

 working agency of natural selection ; for it is not as 

 if there had been an exact balance of power between 

 them. In the same period of time I have seen 

 several species, once common, almost or quite dis- 



appear, while others, very low down as to numbers, 

 have been exalted to the first rank. In insect life 

 especially, these changes have been numerous, rapid, 

 and widespread. 



In the district where, as a boy, I chased and caught 

 tinamous, and also chased ostriches, but failed to 

 catch them, the continued presence of our two 

 humble-bees, sucking the same flowers and making 

 their nests in the same situations, has remained a 

 puzzle to my mind. 



The site of the nest is usually a slight depression 

 in the soil in the shelter of a cardoon bush. The 

 bees deepen the hollow by burrowing in the earth ; 

 and when the spring foliage sheltering it withers up, 

 they construct a dome-shape covering of small sticks, 

 thorns, and leaves bitten into extremely minute pieces. 

 They sometimes take possession of a small hole or 

 cavity in the ground, and save themselves the labour 

 of excavation. 



Their architecture closely resembles that of B. 

 tcrrcstris. They make rudely-shaped oval honey- 

 cells, varying from half an inch to an inch and a half 

 in length, the smaller ones being the first made : 

 later in the season the old cocoons are utilised for 

 storing honey. The wax is chocolate-coloured, and 

 almost the only difference I can find in the economy 

 of the two species is that the black bee uses a large 

 quantity of wax in plastering the interior of its nest. 

 The egg-cell of the yellow bee always contains from 

 twelve to sixteen eggs. At the entrance on the edge 

 of the mound one bee is usually stationed, and, when 

 approached, it hums a shrill challenge, and then 

 throws itself into a menacing attitude. The sting is 

 exceedingly painful. 



One summer I was so fortunate as to discover two 

 nests of the two kinds within twelve yards of each 

 other, and I resolved to watch them very carefully, in 

 order to see whether the two species ever came into 

 collision, as sometimes happens with ants of different 

 species living close together. Several times I saw a 

 yellow bee leave its own nest and hover round or 

 settle on the neighbouring one, upon which the 

 sentinel black bee would attack and drive it off. 

 One day, while watching, I was delighted to see a 

 yellow bee actually enter its neighbour's nest, the 

 sentinel being off duty. In about five minutes' time 

 it came out again and flew away unmolested. I 

 concluded from this that humble-bees, like their 

 conquerors of the hive, occasionally plunder each 

 other's sweets. On another occasion I found a black 

 bee dead at the entrance of the yellow bees' nest ; 

 doubtless this bee had been caught in the act of 

 stealing honey, and, after it had been stung to death, 

 it had been dragged out and left there as a warning to 

 others with like felonious intentions. 



There is one striking difference between the two 

 species. The yellow bee is inodorous ; the black bee 

 when angry and attacking emits an exceedingly power- 

 ful odour ; curiously enough, this smell is identical 



