92 LIVING CREATURES. 



There is one way, however, by which any one may 

 obtain his wish, by gently pushing a limber stalk into 

 their burrows, which will probe their windings to the 

 bottom. This will quickly bring out the animal as it 

 lays hold of the stalk with its paws. 



When the males meet, they fight fiercely, as White 

 found by some which he put into the crevices of a dry 

 stone wall, where he wanted them to settle. The first 

 that got possession of the crevices would attack any 

 that tried to enter. They, would seize them with their 

 strong jaws, which are toothed like the shears of a lob- 

 ster-claw. With these jaws, too, they bore and round 

 their curious cells. 



They feed on such herbs as grow before the mouths 

 of their burrows, and rarely stir more than two or three 

 inches from home. Sitting in the entrance of their cav- 

 erns, they chirp all night as well as all day, from the 

 month of May to the middle of July. In hot weather, 

 when they are most vigorous, they make the hill echo ; 

 and in the still hours of darkness, they may be heard at 

 considerable distance. 



23. BUSY BEES. 



IT requires a busy pen to write about busy bees. 

 There is the bumble bee sporting in a yellow and black 

 jacket, and sometimes called Bombus. What brave 

 boy in the country has not at some time made a hero 

 of himself by attacking a bumble bees' nest ? 



We learn that Bombus, if undisturbed in her hum- 



