THE HISTORY OF A HUMBLE-BEE. Wi 



name is probably Bomhiis .se^mraiM-s, Cressou. The spe- 

 cies which we have been o))serving is Bomhus vir- 

 ginicus. 



"While speaking of the enemies of the bees, we must 

 not forget to mention the field-mice, who, although they 

 yield nesting material to their wild insect friends, make 

 ample reprisals l)y destroying the honeycombs. The 

 late Mr. Darwin made a curious allusion to this fact in 

 his book on the ''Origin of Species.'' A\^e may infer, 

 he says, as highly probable, that were the whole genus 

 of humble-bees to become extinct or very rare in Eng- 

 land, the heart's-ease and red clover (which they fertil- 

 ize by carrying pollen from flower to flower), would 

 become very rare or wholly disappear. The number of 

 humble-bees in any district depends in a great degree 

 on the number of field mice which destroy their combs 

 and nests; and Colonel Xewman, who has long at- 

 tended to the habits of humble-bees, believes that more 

 than two-thirds of them are thus destro3'ed all over 

 England. Now, the number of mice is largely de- 

 pendent, as every one knows, on the number of cats. 

 Colonel Newman says that near villages and small 

 towns he has found the nests of humble-l)ces more 

 numeraus than elsewhere — a fact which he attributes 

 to the number of cats that destroy the mice. Hence it 

 is quite credible that the presence of a feline animal in 

 large numbers in a district might determine, through 

 the intervention first of mice and then of bees, the fre- 

 quency of certain flowers in a district ! I do not know 

 whether the above curious chain of facts holds equally 



