218 FAMILIAR FEATURES OF THE ROADSIDE. 



One word, now, about bees' stings. As for the 

 bumblebee, she is good-natured beyond measure, and 

 the honeybee very rarely stings. Of course, all male 

 bees and wasps have no stings, so they can be handled 

 with impunity. A little calmness in the presence 

 of numberless bees will go a great way toward pre- 

 venting a painful misunderstanding; but to thrash 

 the air with one's hat is to invite hostility. It 

 is often said that if the honeybee stings once, she 

 seals her own fate and must inevitably perish. This 

 is not so ; it altogether depends upon circum- 

 stances. The tip of her sting is not like that of a 

 hornet, smooth and needlelike; it is barbed with a 

 number of very tiny points set laterally, so that when 

 she stings deeply we will 

 say about a fourteenth of an 

 inch down these catch on 



the flesh like the teeth of a 



<f Wj \ 

 saw, and the enraged insect, m ^ 



tearing herself away, or, more The Robber Fly 



likely, thrust violently asi5e (PnacMs bastardy 

 by her victim, leaves not only her sting, but her poi- 

 son bag and other portions of her anatomy behind 

 her. Under such conditions she can not continue to 

 live. But should she sting less deeply, or strike the 

 tender, soft flesh of a less muscular individual, she 

 will probably escape uninjured. Should it happen 



