90 THE HUMBLE-BEE v 
nests in all stages, including some strong ones of 
B. terrestris, and did not receive a single sting. 
The main points to be observed are to endeavour 
to catch every bee that comes out of the nest, and 
not to disturb the bees in the nest until nearly all 
have been captured. If a worker does escape now 
and then, it is not likely to attack you unless it is a 
terrestris or muscorum, and even these soon lose 
their aggressiveness unless several of their com- 
rades have also been permitted to get away; the 
fugitives then rouse one another's anger, and if they 
pour out of the nest it is wise to beat an immediate 
retreat. The quickest way to take a populous 
terrestris nest is to stupefy the bees by stopping 
the hole with a rag on which have been placed a 
few drops of ether. In all cases the bees that 
return from the fields are perfectly harmless so long 
as they do not smell the nest, and if one keeps 
working at it they dare not approach near enough 
to do this. A queen humble-bee will never attack 
a human being, she only stings if she is held or 
crushed. When the workers are alarmed in their 
nest some of them crawl out and, turning over on 
their backs, lie motionless, perhaps for a minute or 
two, ready to seize and sting anything that touches 
them. The surface-dwelling species are specially 
given to doing this, often hiding themselves in the 
nest material, which is coloured like themselves, 
and one has to be careful not to put one’s hand 
on them. The two surface-dwelling species, 2. 
sylvarum and B. helferanus, are very calm when 
