11 Eee -HiSstORY OF 2O72BUS 15 
choosing the upper part of a bank or slope facing 
north or north-west, though generally near trees. 
In such banks I have sometimes found great 
numbers of queens, chiefly dapzdartus, and it is 
easy to discover them, because in burrowing into 
the ground each queen throws up a little heap of 
fine earth, which remains to mark the spot until the 
rains of autumn wash it away. The burrows are 
only one to three inches long, and if the bank is 
steep they run almost horizontally. They are filled 
with the loose earth that the queen has excavated. 
The queen occupies a spherical cavity having a 
diameter of about 1} inch. 
It is evidently damp and not cold that the queens 
try to avoid. Indeed, the northern aspect shows 
that they prefer a cold situation, and the reason is 
easily guessed. The sun never shines on northern 
banks with sufficient strength to warm the ground, 
so that the queens do not run the risk of being 
awakened on a sunny day too early in spring, for 
the queen humble-bee is very susceptible to a rise in 
temperature in the spring, although heat in autumn, 
even should it amount to 80° F., will not rouse her 
when once she has become torpid. The queen 
easily takes fright while she is excavating her 
burrow, and I find that many burrows are begun 
and not finished. 
The queen always fills her honey-sac with honey 
before she retires to her hibernacle. This store of 
liquid food is no doubt essential for the preservation 
of life, and is especially needed, one would think, 
