BEES HUMBLE AND OTHERWISE 65 



sun has played on it for a few hours it is a greyish 

 bee with a white face and but let me catch one 

 and show you. Afraid of being stung ? No, 

 for the simple reason that I know this bee to be a 

 male. There. You see that the whole of its face 

 is a staring cream colour, next that the middle pair 

 of legs are furnished with extraordinarily long 

 hairs of which no one yet has learned any use 

 except one, as a means of naming the insect. We 

 call it Anthophora pilipes, or, in the bosom of the 

 family, ' Old Hairy-legs.' 



And where is Mrs. Hairy-legs ? You would 

 never guess. A few days ago she slept in her 

 chrysalis underground. Hairy-legs came first to 

 the dead-nettles or the white alyssum the ladies 

 must not be kept waiting. But now I see, Mrs. 

 Hairy-legs is here also. She is that coal-black 

 bee with yellow pollen baskets, for, unlike her 

 destined husband, she is hard at work collecting 

 food for her destined young. You don't believe 

 it ? Ah, now Hairy-legs has discovered her. 

 See him hover behind her on rapidly vibrating 

 wing, all the ardour of love in his very hum. See 

 him dart at her like a shot suddenly released from 

 a catapult. Yes, that is certainly Mrs. Hairy- 

 legs, and if you catch her, she will give you some- 

 what of a sting, a very sharp prick that hurts quite 

 as much at the outset as our hive bee herself, 

 but leaves a less poisonous result. 



We could scarcely select a better solitary bee 

 for open-air study than this same Hairy-legs. 



