91 



by weather, to become wanderers like their congeners. They voluntarily leave, and 

 may be seen flying from thistle to thistle, in their lively liveries of yellow and red. 



" There are several more species of the wild bee in Britain, varieties of those which 

 I have described, but they have all the same habits as to the internal economy of the 

 nest, the drones all leaving, without the faculty of returning ; and each of the males 

 of all the species making a round of visits in fine weather, in the early part of the day, 

 to particular spots, and each species varies its flight in this respect, on the ground, in 

 a manner that a little resembles the workers. I need scarcely add, that none of the 

 honey-cells of any of these bees are sealed like those of the hive bee. The Apis lapi- 

 daria is the handsomest of its congeners. 



"4. Apis muscorum, or Moss Carder. 



" ' In saltibus omnia libant.' 



" The queen mother of this species is not so large as the others I have described, 

 and is the latest of the Bombinatrices in appearing in the spring. The colour is pale 

 yellow, very nearly the same as the moss in which it makes its nest : the body is hairy, 

 the proboscis long, the legs black : the abdomen of the male is longer than that of the 

 female. The worker becomes cinereous as it gets older. This species is very easily 

 taken, as they make their nest on the surface of the moss, and in most cases removed 

 from the tread of cattle, in some quiet lane or retired spot with a southern aspect. A 

 single queen commences a colony, which in general is few in number, although in fa- 

 vourable situations in Scotland, where the wild flowers of their seeking abound, I have 

 found 200 in number, and from that down to twenty, or even ten. This is a good 

 species for watching the operations of the queen bee : I have easily taken many of 

 their nests in the same way as those of the last described. The more cultivated and 

 rich the country, the fewer bees of this species are found, and they vary in colour ; in 

 Scotland they are of a much darker yellow, and are called the foggy bee, from moss 

 being called fog in that part of the kingdom. 



" When shooting on the moors in August, I have found the nest of this species 

 very few in number, sometimes only three or four workers, besides the queen. One 

 wonders how they exist in such a miserable locality ; however, there they may be seen, 

 booming along, and in a very calm day their hum is the only sound heard, except the 

 whirr of the moor-cock. When a boy, I had many colonies of these insects in my gar- 

 den, and have watched their habits, which I can inform my readers are precisely the 

 same as those already described, at least as to the males adopting a voluntary banish- 

 ment, and never returning to the nest. Excepting to an habitual observer, this is the 

 most difficult species to watch, as the difference in colour and appearance is less than 

 in any others between the workers and drones ; the antennae of the latter are large, 

 and a little curved, like a cow's horn. 



" In an old orchard overgrown with moss, in Northamptonshire, I found at least 

 twenty of their nests in the space of twenty yards square. No cattle had been in it, 

 as it adjoined a kitchen-garden \ nor had there been any carts or wagons there. I 

 had some difficulty myself to walk without treading on their nests, which may be known 

 by being a little raised above the surface, and the moss of a lighter colour. These 

 bees are fond of the wildest of all wild flowers ; they fly very near the earth, but have 

 a very straight flight ; they may be seen on the wild flowers in the deepest valleys and 

 woods, as well as on the highest hills, and they are by far the hardiest and strongest 

 of all their congeners. I have seen them in the most stormy weather, winging their 



