372 INSECTS AT HOME. 



Bees, and can testify that, whereas the females of the Carder 

 Bees take such attacks quietly, and seldom use their stings, 

 those species which build underground resent the assault, and 

 very soon let their assailants know that they have stings and can 

 use them. 



The Plate gives a very good idea of the Wood Humble 

 Bee's nest, and of the shape and position of the cells. The 

 wax of which they are made is coarse and brown, and the walls 

 of the cells are of considerable thickness. They are of various 

 sizes, according as they are intended to serve as the habitations 

 of females, males, or workers. Some contain honey, which is 

 usually of a pinker hue than that of the Hive Bee, and is 

 peculiarly sweet and fragrant. It is, however, seldom fit for 

 food, as it gives a violent headache to most persons, myself 

 among the number. I have suffered severely from a hard, 

 throbbing headache, caused by eating scarcely a teaspoonful of 

 this insect's honey, before I found out its evil qualities. It is 

 a pity that the honey should have such an effect, for it is far 

 superior in flavour to that of the Hive Bee, having a sort of 

 delicate perfume about it. 



The size as well as the position of the nest differs greatly. 

 Sometimes there are but a few cells, and sometimes the colony 

 is so strong that there are about two hundred cells in the nest. 

 The depth in the ground also varies, much as does that of the 

 common wasp, and for the same reason. The Humble Bee 

 very seldom, if ever, makes the whole of the excavation in 

 which her nest is placed, but takes advantage of a deserted 

 mouse-hole, and scoops out the earth wherever she finds it 

 most convenient. 



Another species, the Stone Humble Bee {Bomhus lapi- 

 darius), is drawn on Woodcut XXXVII. Figs. 2, 3, and 4. 

 At Fig. 2 is shown the perfect female, or Queen Bee ; 3 is 

 the imperfect female, or worker, and 4 the male, these 

 figures being of the average size of the sexes. This is the 

 ' red-hipped Humble Bee ' of Shakspeare, and is a very familiar 

 insect. The female is black, with the three last segments 

 of the abdomen bright rusty-red. The worker is coloured 

 like the female, and the male is black, with yellow down on 

 the face, top of the head, and collar. Yellow hairs are also 



