More Enquiries into Mason-bees 



Mason-bees head for the south as though 

 some compass told them which way the wind 

 was blowing. 



I am back at twelve o'clock. None of tht 

 strays is at the nest; but, a few minutes later, 

 I catch two. At two o'clock, the number has 

 increased to nine. But now the sky clouds 

 over, the wind freshens and the storm is ap- 

 proaching. We can no longer rely on any 

 further arrivals. Total: nine, out of forty, or 

 twenty-two per cent. 



The proportion is smaller than in the 

 former cases, when it varied between thirty 

 and forty per cent. Must we attribute this 

 result to the difficulties to be overcome? Can 

 the Mason-bees have lost their way in the 

 maze of the forest? It is safer not to give 

 an opinion : other causes intervened which 

 may have decreased the number of those who 

 rcturn'ed. I marked the insects at the starting- 

 place; I handled them; and I am not prepared 

 to say that they were all in the best of con- 

 dition on leaving my stung and smarting 

 fingers. Besides, the sky has become over- 

 cast, a storm is imminent. In the month of 

 May, so variable, so fickle, in my part of the 

 world, we can hardly ever count on a whole 

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