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much larger than the worker, and commences a nest by herself, in the ground ; some- 

 times she takes possession of some hole near, excavated by some reptile, but it is often 

 made entirely by herself: in the latter case, her nest is not so apt to be destroyed by 

 the field mouse, the most determined enemy to the wild bee. The queen and workers 

 are so well known that it is almost useless to describe them ; but the male bee is very 

 different, being of a bright buff colour, with a white abdomen, and is one of the most 

 beautiful of the whole species. These drones are very fond of the blossoms of the 

 puce-coloured Salvia and the blue Veronica, a common spiry plant to be seen in al- 

 most every garden. Although the Apis terrestris appears the first in the spring, 

 generally in the beginning of March, the males do not hatch or leave the nest until 

 fully a month later than some of the other species. 



" The whole of this species is subject to a disease from small lice, which fasten 

 upon the head and trunk of the poor insect, and often eventually separate the trunk 

 from the lower part of the body, and destroy the insect. It is a remarkable fact, that 

 I have invariably found the queens at spring time, more infested with these lice in 

 the south and south-west of England than in Scotland, where my first acquaintance 

 with their habits began. 



"As soon as the queen mother has formed two or three cells her labours are inces- 

 sant, and I have watched her from the nest for the first fortnight. At this period she 

 is seldom longer from the nest than from three to five minutes, no doubt to prevent 

 the young brood-bee from getting chilled to death in its cell. Only one bee is hatched 

 at first, which, immediately after making great observations around, leaves the nest 

 and commences work. It is wonderful to see what observation a bee makes the first 

 time it issues from the nest. It is about two minutes in particularly noticing the en- 

 trance, and all the objects near ; returning many times before taking its final flight to 

 work. The organ of locality, as the phrenologists term it, is very strongly developed in 

 the whole genus of the Bombinatrices. It is the same with wasps, hornets, and hive- 

 bees. The queen now remains at home a longer time, and when some half-dozen bees 

 are hatched, her journeys are very rare indeed. I should here remark that the proof 

 of these labours of the mother bee are much more easily ascertained with the Apis 

 muscorum, in consequence of their easiness of access in the moss ; and it is to this 

 species of bee that I am indebted for my first notice of the gradual labours of the 

 queen mother. 



" I shall now proceed to notice the extraordinary habits of the drones or males of 

 all these species of wild bees, my first discoveiy of which was with the Apis terrestris, 

 and purely accidental. They leave the nest but once, never to return. 



" When about thirteen years of age, I began to collect nests of bees, and place 

 them in my garden. In the months of June and July I used to employ my idle hours 

 in looking for their nests ; and meeting with a very strong and numerous one, about 

 the 15th of July, in a wood, a schoolfellow accompanied me to take it. We were 

 armed with a large knife, and two wooden boxes, with holes and stoppers, to hold the 

 bees. This nest (Apis terrestris) was so numerous that at fifty yards' distance I could 

 see the bees ascending and descending to the place. The flight of this bee is much 

 higher in the air and steadier than that of any of the others. After an hour's labour 

 we got to the combs, and succeeded in capturing no less than 500 bees, including a 

 new hatch of about fifty drones ; these were all brought home, with nearly all the 

 combs. Having left a small bit of comb, to decoy the stray bees, we returned home. 

 This nest contained 800 bees, fully 200 or 300 more than in any I ever found before 



