FLIES AND HUMBLE-BEES. 125 



In a few days from the death of the mother, the eggs hatch, 

 and become lively little runners, of a bright red colour. 

 These first devour the cottony stuff among which they 

 were born ; then they manage to lift up the edge of their 

 covering, and away they run, helter-skelter. This active 

 life lasts but a short time : they soon get hungry, pierce 

 the rind of the twigs, anchor themselves by the beak, settle 

 down to serious eating, and become fixtures for life. 



Did you ever observe the FLIES on the sunflowers 

 cleaning themselves ? They first have a good long feast of 

 honey, and cover themselves with pollen ; eyes, legs and 

 wings, all as yellow as gold. When one of the thieves 

 has managed to get so polleny that he can't see, he sets to 

 work to clean himself : it is most amusing to see his ope- 

 rations ; the hind legs clean the wings, and the fore legs 

 the head ; with great skill the pollen is scraped off the 

 head, eyes, and face, and then rolled up into pellets by 

 the fore legs and thrown away with a kind of jerk. I 

 have seen this done fifty times. The HUMBLE-BEES on a 

 sunflower are also very odd-mannered ; they get as drunk 

 as Bacchus or Silenus ; then they get sleepy as Morpheus, 

 and cross as Cerberus ; if you touch one he leans on one 

 side, cocking up the opposite legs into the air, and plays 

 divers other antics, till, with his various trials to show that 

 he is compos mentis, and able to fight and defend himself, 

 he sidles, staggers, rolls, and falls to the ground, and there 

 lies on his back till he has slept himself sober. 



Ever since I first wore that garment, which in this pri- 

 vileged country is supposed to imply that the wearer there- 

 of is, or is to be, one of the lords of the creation, the house 

 and premises situate to the west of Godalming, and ex- 

 tending from the town to the Gill property at Eshing, 



