216 FAMILIAR FEATURES OF THE ROADSIDE. 



to look about for some suitable spot in which to lay 

 their eggs. The situation being duly selected, the 

 bee goes a-foraging for honey and pollen ; these she 

 works together in a mass and on it deposits her eggs. 

 Yery soon the eggs are hatched, and the grubs after 

 eating and growing fat finally envelop themselves in 

 silken cocoons ; then the mother bee covers the 

 cocoons with wax. Eventually the young bees 

 mature and emerge from their cells, full-fledged 

 workers. This modus operandi is repeated until 

 several broods are hatched, the small females and 

 the males being produced about the middle of sum- 

 mer, and still later the queens 

 from the final batch of eggs. 



The bumblebee is a little glut- 

 ton, either on the roadside clover * 



The Bumblebee Qr the den gunflower> 



(Bombus vagans}. 



watched more than one cram it- 

 self so full of honey from my sunflowers that ap- 

 parently it was helplessly drunk with the potent sweet. 

 The thistle seems to produce the same effect on the 

 greedy insect, and, despite all urgent invitations to 

 move on, it either clings to the flower or drops to the 

 ground with a hopeless, maudlin kind of a buzz ! 

 There are insect characters often seen among the 



* See also Chap. XI, page 180. 



