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are flitting fitfully about, and in the evening delicately 

 tinted moths hover over the grass. During the sunny 

 hours of the day the Honey-bee, on its way to flowery 

 pastures or purple heaths, alights on the clover or 

 the vetch ; the Humble-bee hides itself in the foxglove's 

 bell ; and the yellow ground Wasp gathers sweets wherever 

 it can find them. The nest of the first, and the vespiaries 

 of the last-named insect-architects, are in the sloping bank, 

 where, undisturbed, they lay up a winter store, or prepare 

 cells for their eggs and larvae. Often very different is 

 the fate of those who have planted their colonies in 

 the banks by the side of the more public highway. No 

 sooner are they discovered than an immediate process of 

 assault and battery is commenced. A troop of merciless 

 boys, armed with match, brown paper, and leafy boughs, 

 endeavour to smoke them out, destroy them as they issue, 

 and (in the case of the Humble-bees) rifle their homes of 

 their treasured hoards. If they know it, not an insect 

 will be left living. Melancholy sight for those workers, 

 who, with tired wings, return from their distant labour, 

 heavy-laden with ricnes for their cherished commonwealth ! 



The wilful cruelty of boys towards innocent animals, 

 birds, and insects, is a fact not pleasant to dwell upon. It 

 seems to be an inherent disposition, and much too prevalent 

 to be gainsaid. The one who shows his unerring aim by 

 killing a harmless sparrow, or can manage to toss a stone into 

 a thrush's nest, (built with great care and patient industry 

 high in the fork of a tall tree), has something to boast of ? 

 and can strut amongst his fellows a hero for that day. A 

 few lessons on common humanity, taught at school among 

 the rest of their elementary training, might perhaps be 



