74 IRambies witb mature Students 



THE HUMBLE-BEE FLY (Bombylius major) 



The appearance of the graceful humble-bee fly 

 hovering over the early spring flowers is to me 

 one of the welcome signs of spring. 



It flutters over my beds of forget-me-not and 

 pulmonaria, and poising on the wing like a humming- 

 bird, it inserts its long and very slender proboscis into 

 each blossom in succession, extracting the honey 

 upon which its delicate life is sustained. The 

 slightest movement on my part sends it off so swiftly 

 that the eye cannot follow it, and yet it will return 

 after a time, and allow me to watch its graceful flights 

 just as long as I remain perfectly still. 



It is a fly with a good deal of character, and it 

 differs in many respects from any other with which I 

 am acquainted. I have sometimes caught a specimen 

 in a soft gauze net, and carefully placed it under a 

 glass shade containing a small vase of sweet fiowers 

 for its refreshment. At first the fly gives up all for 

 lost and lies on its back with its slender legs in the 

 air, as if in a dead faint ; but it soon revives, and 

 softly humming to itself, it hovers gently round the 

 flowers, and when at last assured that there is no 

 outlet for escape, it becomes quite resigned and 

 begins to draw honey from the blossoms until it is 

 satisfied, when it will rest upon a leaf in a contented 

 fashion, not in the least minding its loss of liberty. 



If my readers will contrast with this the conduct 

 of a newly caught bluebottle fly placed under a 

 glass, and think of the wild way in which it will 

 strike itself against its prison walls, buzzing and 

 dashing about in a blind unreasoning fright, I think 



