Humble-Bees and other Matters. 157 



it had been stung to death, it had been dragged 

 out and left there as a warning to others with like 

 felonious intentions. 



There is one striking difference between the two 

 species. The yellow bee is inodorous ; the black 

 bee, when angry and attacking, emits an exceed- 

 ingly powerful odou-r : curiously enough, this smell 

 is identical in character with that made when angry 

 by all the wasps of the South American genus 

 Pepris dark blue wasps with red wings. This 

 odour at first produces a stinging sensation on the 

 nerve of smell, but when inhaled in large measure 

 becomes very nauseating. On one occasion, while 

 I was opening a nest, several of the bees buzzing 

 round my head and thrusting their stings through 

 the veil I wore for protection, gave out so pungent 

 a smell that I found it unendurable, and was com- 

 pelled to retreat. 



It seems strange that a species armed with a 

 venomous sting and possessing the fierce courage 

 of the humble-bee should also have this repulsive 

 odour for a protection. It is, in fact, as incongruous 

 as it would be were our soldiers provided with 

 guns and swords first, and after with phials of 

 assafcetida to be uncorked in the face of an enemy. 



Why, or how, animals came to be possessed of the 

 power of emitting pestiferous odours is a mystery ; 

 we only see that natural selection has, in some 

 instances, chiefly among insects, taken advantage 

 of it to furnish some of the weaker, more unpro- 

 tected species with a means of escape from their 

 enemies. The most striking example I know is that 



