62 THE RING OF NATURE 



Mr. F. W. L. Sladen, one of those who under- 

 stand bees in this country, was therefore respon- 

 sible for sending as the second consignment to New 

 Zealand the red-tailed humble-bee, which is not 

 given to the nefarious habit, and henceforth the 

 roast beef of New Zealand rested on a firmer basis. 



Let us find this red-tailed humble-bee on the 

 flowering currant. She is seen in a moment. 

 Her name of course is Bombus lapidarius. You 

 will find her later in the year heading a consider- 

 able nest in a deep hole on some stony bank, and 

 if you attempt to interview her there, you will find 

 that she is the fiercest of all our humble-bees. 

 On the other hand, you may think that you find 

 her inhabiting a moss-woven nest on the surface, 

 and then you will find her a very mild-mannered 

 bee. In the second case, you are dealing with 

 B. derhamellus, quite another kind of bee. The 

 quickest way to tell them apart is to see whether 

 one of them has the hairs of its pollen baskets 

 and some other of its leg-hairs red instead of 

 black. If it has, it is derhamellus. 



I would not attempt in this place to unravel the 

 species that may be described as yellow-thoraxed. 

 Suffice it to say that there are about twelve of 

 them, more or less alike to the casual eye. The 

 rest of our humble-bees may be put down by the 

 uninitiated as varieties of our banded bee, 

 Bombus terrestris. Added to those already given, 

 they make up the list to twenty. Three times 

 twenty are sixty, and that gives the number of 



