More Enquiries into Mason-bees 



straw if I were seen opening my paper bags 

 and letting loose my insects! When half- 

 way, to make my experiment more decisive 

 still, I repeat the rotation, in as complicated 

 a fashion as before. I repeat it for the third 

 time at the spot chosen for the release. 



I am at the end of a flint-strewn plain, with 

 here and there a scanty curtain of almond- 

 trees and holm-oaks. Walking at a good pace, 

 I have taken thirty minutes to cover the 

 ground in a straight line. The distance, 

 therefore, is, roughly, two miles. It is a fine 

 day, under a clear sky, with a very light 

 breeze blowing from the north. I sit down on 

 the ground, facing the south, so that the in- 

 sects may be free to take either the direction 

 of their nest or the opposite one. I let them 

 loose at a quarter past two. When the bags 

 are opened, the Bees, for the most part, circle 

 several times around me and then dart off 

 impetuously in the direction of Serignan, as 

 far as I can judge. It is not easy to watch 

 them, because they fly off suddenly, after go- 

 ing two or three times round my body, a 

 suspicious-looking object which they wish, ap- 

 parently, to reconnoitre before starting. A 

 quarter of an hour later, my eldest daughter, 



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