198 ENTOMOLOGICAL SOCIETY 
THE HABITS OF BUMBLE-BEES. 
It was found impracticable to find the nests of the bees by the method of 
" lining" used in the case of the honey-bees. It was difficult to get the 
bees to feed in a box. When liberated they did not fly in straight lines, 
and never did one return. It may aid some future student, however, if it 
is stated here that the writer has frequently seen bees when laden fly from 
a field of clover in a straight line in the direction of a nest, the location of 
which he already knew. 
The neighboring farmers usually knew the localities of several nests, 
and were glad enough to point them out. Just before dark, after all the 
bees were in, the writer, provided with a cigar box, a bottle of chloroform, 
a pair of forceps, and a gauze-covered wide-mouthed bottle, would quietly 
approach the nest, pour a little chloroform over it, wait until the hum- 
ming had ceased, open the top of the nest, pick out the bees with the 
forceps and put them in the bottle, the nest, with the " comb," being 
placed in the cigar-box. The bees soon revive, and the chloroform, if 
used moderately, does not kill the larvae. 
A box about three inches deep and large enough to contain the nest had 
been previously provided with a glass cover, and a small hole had been 
cut in the side. In this box the nest and revived bees were placed, and the 
aperture closed for a day. The box was then fitted in below a window sash , 
so that the bees could come and go on the outside without annoying the 
observer. The nest, if a thin one, was blocked up, so that the uppermost 
cells of the "comb" touched the glass, and the whole box covered with 
an opaque mat. The nest, originally that of a mouse, was made of dead 
grass and lined with wax, and as there was little room between the comb 
and the glass, the upper part of the nest could not be rebuilt, and the wax 
lining was made fast on all sides to the glass. Thus, when the darkening 
mat was removed, the whole interior of the nest could be seen. The bees 
entered the nest through an opening near the bottom. They soon became 
reconciled to their new quarters, although for a few days many of them 
would return to the place from which their nest had been taken. It was 
not ascertained whether these bees perished or learned afterward the new 
location of the nest. 
All the nests that were reared were captured in July, and the one on 
which the following observations were made was that of a colony of Bom- 
bus borealis. 
A general account of the habits of some of our American bumble-bees 
was published by F. W. Putnam* many years ago, and the observations 
there recorded agree, so far as they go, with the few exceptions noted be- 
low, with those of the writer, and some additional facts are here presented, 
'Proc. Essex Institute, iv, 98-104 (1864-5). 
