60 THE RING OF NATURE 



MARCH 

 II 



BEES HUMBLE AND OTHERWISE 



THERE is no more joyous sound than the 

 deep hum of the first humble-bee as she 

 winnows the red beech leaves on some bank that 

 she is searching for a site for her nest. It is 

 usually the yellow-banded bee that thus first pre- 

 sents herself. The big red-tailed bee comes next, 

 and the yellow-thoraxed bee, not usually so large 

 as either of these, but still a giant by comparison 

 with the hive bee, generally gets up last. 



A writer in the British Bee Journal says of the 

 wild bees : ' I love them so well that I could even 

 tell the species by their hum, as you may the birds 

 by their song, or the butterflies by their flight, 

 or the flowers by their scent.' The ordinary reader 

 may spend a few hours in the garden listening to 

 the one or two bees that he knows, and he may 

 imagine that he has reached the same height of 

 musical appreciation. He will find most of the 

 queen humble-bees of the neighbourhood humming 

 round the flowering currant if it is well out and the 



