THE MYRMIDONS 167 



the Greek for ant. The compliment, if deliberate, 

 was one that the ants and bees well deserved. 



I marked in April the place where a yellow- 

 thoraxed humble-bee went to her nest in the long 

 dry grass, and though I opened the tiny dome of 

 moss and discovered her there victualling the one 

 cell like half a nutshell, she or some other came 

 back and continued the nest. Now, it requires 

 some fortitude to break the nest open, and let out 

 the cloud of bees that very much want to know 

 what is meant by such a trespass. They are not 

 so fierce, however, as the red-tailed bees, and 

 when the nest is open they lie about for the most 

 part on their backs with their tails in the air 

 ready to sting if they are touched. Some say 

 that they feign death, but the attitude reminds 

 us forcibly of that of the wood ants when their 

 nest is attacked, and they prepare to squirt poison. 



The nest is a very jumble of cells in all stages of 

 completion, resembling in the final stage the cocoon 

 cases of the ants done in yellow wax and many 

 times the size. Some contain fat white grubs, 

 others indiscriminately mixed with them, dark 

 and rather insipid honey. The humble-bee does 

 not ferment and cook and flavour its honey as 

 the artistic hive-bee does. The cells are stuck 

 together loosely where they tangentially touch 

 one another, so that they make a sort of single 

 comb, for the openings are all on one side. The 

 triangular spaces between the cells are often 

 jammed with a mixture of honey and pollen, and 



