flumble-Bees ana other Matters. 157 
it had been stung to death, it had been dragged 
out and left there as a warning to others with like 
felonious intentions. 
There is one striking difference between the two 
species. The yellow bee is inodorous; the black 
bee, when angry and attacking, emits an exceed- 
ingly powerful odour : curiously enough, this smell 
is identical in character with that made when angry 
by all the wasps of the South American genus 
Pepris—dark blue wasps with red wings. This 
odour at first produces a stinging sensation on the 
nerve of smell, but when inhaled in large measure 
becomes very nauseating. On one occasion, while 
I was opening a nest, several of the bees buzzing 
round my head and thrusting their stings through 
the veil I wore for protection, gave out so pungent 
a smell that I found it unendurable, and was com- 
pelled to retreat. 
It seems strange that a species armed with a 
venomous sting and possessing the fierce courage 
of the humble-bee should also have this repulsive 
odour for a protection. It is, in fact, as incongruous 
as it would be were our soldiers provided with 
guns and swords first, and after with phials of 
assafoetida to be uncorked in the face of an enemy. 
Why, or how, animals came to be possessed of the 
power of emitting pestiferous odours is a mystery ; 
we only see that natural selection has, in some 
instances, chiefly among insects, taken advantage 
of it to furnish some of the weaker, more unpro- 
tected species with a means of escape from their 
enemies. ‘The most striking example I know is that 
