Ix CN MARING A COLLECTION 223 
It requires much time and patience to obtain a 
series of perfect, unfaded specimens of some of the 
less common species, especially of the queens, by 
catching them in the fields, but if a nest can be 
found they can easily be bred. The bees must be 
allowed to remain in the nest for three or four days 
after they have acquired their full colour or the 
colour will fade when they are drying. The queens 
of some species, such as B. helferanus and B. 
muscorum, fly from the nest before their full bright- 
ness has been acquired, and in order to breed satis- 
factory specimens of them it is necessary to keep them 
confined to the nest by means of a queen interceptor, 
or to bring the nest indoors shortly before it breaks 
up, and keep it in a box covered with wire-cloth. 
The colours of perfectly mature specimens are 
permanent, provided they are not exposed for long 
to strong light, the only possible exceptions that | 
know of being the delicate shades of lemon and 
greenish-yellow in BL. muscorum and dstinguendus, 
which I have not yet succeeded in preserving in 
their full freshness for more than a few months. 
There is no better place for collecting humble- 
bees than a large old-fashioned garden. Of the 
scores of cultivated flowers that they delight in, 
one cannot do more than mention a few: in the 
flower garden, nasturtium, sweet-pea, snapdragon, 
lavender, bergamot, C/larkza and Fraxinella ; in the 
kitchen garden, sage, broad-beans, scarlet-runners, 
globe artichoke (I have seen as many as fourteen 
humble-bees on one flower-head of this plant), also 
