lo THE WONDERS OF INSTINCT 



Halicti.^ I omit a host of others. If I tried to con- 

 tinue this record of the guests of my thistles, it would 

 muster almost the whole of the honey-yielding tribe. 

 A learned entomologist of Bordeaux, Professor Perez, 

 to whom I submit the naming of my prizes, once asked 

 me if I had any special means of hunting, to send him so 

 many rarities and even novelties. I am not at all an 

 experienced and still less a zealous hunter, for the insect 

 interests me much more when engaged in its work than 

 when stuck on a pin in a cabinet. The whole secret of 

 my hunting is reduced to my dense nursery of thistles 

 and centauries. 



By a most fortunate chance, with this populous family 

 of honey-gatherers was allied the whole hunting tribe. 

 The builders' men had distributed here and there, in the 

 harmas, great mounds of sand and heaps of stones, with 

 a view of running up some surrounding walls. The 

 work dragged on slowly; and the materials found occu- 

 pants from the first year. The Mason-bees had chosen 

 the interstices between the stones as a dormitory where 

 to pass the night in serried groups. The powerful Eyed 

 Lizard, who, when close-pressed, attacks wide-mouthed 

 both man and dog, had selected a cave wherein to lie in 

 wait for the passing Scarab ; ^ the Black -eared Chat, 

 garbed like a Dominican, white-frocked with black wings, 

 sat on the top stone, singing his short rustic lay : his nest, 

 with its sky-blue eggs, must be somewhere in the heap. 



1 Osmiae, Macrocerae, Eucerae, Dasypodae, Andrenae, and Halicti 

 are all different species of Wild Bees. — Translator's Note. 



2 A Dung-beetle known also as the Sacred Beetle. — Translator's 

 Note. 



