HUNTING WILD BEES 



of conscious superiority which eye and voice betrayed 

 showed me that I had blundered. 



"Take them all together," he said, "social and soli- 

 tary, we have at least five thousand species of wild 

 bees; and I should count it a poor day's hunt if I did 

 not get seven or 



eight to-day. And , K .J. y^ry 



here is one of 

 them!" he added, 

 with a sweep of his 

 net. " And one of 

 the most interest- 

 ing. It is Cresson's 

 Megachile rnendi- 

 ca/' he continued, 

 as he removed the 

 bee from the net 

 to the cyanide or 

 killing- bottle, and 

 thence — after a 

 painless and al- 

 most instantaneous 

 death — to his col- 

 lecting-tubes. 



Megachile, at 

 least, the author 

 knows; and his 



readers have had an inkling of her pretty ways, for she 

 is one of our leaf-cutters. Last summer one chose the 

 steps beneath one wing of our porch for the making of 

 her nest, into which she would pass through the latticed 

 screen atween the pillars of the floor. There was near- 

 by foraging enough for the needed fabric, for her fancy 



145 



LEAF-CUTTER BEE {ilEGACHlLE MElfDlCA) 

 AT WORK UPON A ROSE-BUSH 



