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species that form larger colonies under the surface of the ground, 

 where they usually choose for their habitation a disused field-mouse's 

 or rat's nest. 



The pouch-makers in their simple method of feeding their young 

 resemble the solitary bees ; the pollen-storers' method, which is more 

 complex, more approaches that of the social honey-bees (Jpis). 



Bomhus terrestris is a typical pollen-storer, on which I have made 

 some experiments which may be worth mentioning. 



I have succeeded in " taming " the (females) queens of the race 

 terrestris of this species so far as to get them to start making their nests 

 in captivity. So responsive have some of my queens been to constant 

 care and attention that I can hardly doubt this species has a trace 

 of the domesticable nature of its relative, the honey-bee. 



On the occasion of the Eoyal Agricultural Society's Show, which 

 took place at Maidstone towards the end of June this year, I tried 

 the experiment of exhibiting two young living colonies of this humble- 

 bee in a specially constructed 4-queened hive. Each colony consisted 

 of a queen and two or three young workers, with a small nest 

 containing brood in all stages. The vibration of the railway journey 

 from Dover to Maidstone upset them a little at first, but the queens 

 soon returned to their brood and continued to show their usual 

 devotion to it by spreading their bodies over it to keep it warm. (I 

 should have expected any of the pouch-malcers to have deserted their 

 nest under such trying and artificial conditions). I fed them with 

 honey and water, injected by means of a fountain-pen filler into an 

 empty cell, twice a day. On the second day of the Show the workers 

 were permitted to fly. They were remarkably quick and intelligent 

 in locating the position of their hive, which was set on a table in the 

 bee-tent, and found their way without any difficulty (though with a 

 great deal of what looked like fuss and feigned hesitation) into their 

 hive amongst a crowd of interested onlookers, in which we were able 

 to see them depositing their loads of honey and pollen under the 

 glass. Their good behaviour earned for them a first prize at the 

 hands of the judges of the bee-department. Through the labours of 

 the workers the size of the combs increased considerably by the end 

 of the show week. On the return journey one of the queens was so 

 reconciled to the vibration as to lay a batch of eggs in the train ! 



The lack of timidity of B. terrestris, race terrestris, which enables 

 one to do so much with the queens, makes the workers unpleasantly 

 aggressive when their nest is disturbed, and they will boldly attack 

 the intruder on the wing, making free use of their stings like wasps. 



