NATURE'S CRAFTSMEN 



disturb conditions. Moreover, they snap at the bees 

 and wasps as though they felt called upon to share in 

 their master's hunting. But they have grown aweary 

 of such tame sport, and have been lying in the tall 

 grass watching us with apparent wonder and a disgusted 

 air, as though puzzled at the methods of those superior 

 creatures, their masters. Poor dogs! Our ways must 

 indeed seem to them a bit peculiar, and our unreason- 

 ableness (from their stand-point) most vexing. Such a 

 way of hunting, for example ! 



"And here is our last capture for the day," quoth Mr. 

 Four, as he swept a bumblebee into his net. And rarely 

 interesting fellows are these children of Bombus. We 

 look upon them more complaisantly since Charles Dar- 

 win taught us that we owe them the heart's-ease and the 

 red-top clover. Indeed, let men remember, when they 

 make up their balance-sheets in account with nature 

 and her wild children of the insect world, that without 

 them the life and infinite variety and beauty of plants 

 would not have been achieved. 



So ends our field-day, with thirteen species of bees to 

 our credit, and our wild-bee hunter's promise is more 

 than made good. 



