9 o THE HUMBLE-BEE 



nests in all stages, including some strong ones of 

 B. terrestris, and did not receive a single sting. 

 The main points to be observed are to endeavour 

 to catch every bee that comes out of the nest, and 

 not to disturb the bees in the nest until nearly all 

 have been captured. If a worker does escape now 

 and then, it is not likely to attack you unless it is a 

 terrestris or muscorum, and even these soon lose 

 their aggressiveness unless several of their com- 

 rades have also been permitted to get away ; the 

 fugitives then rouse one another's anger, and if they 

 pour out of the nest it is wise to beat an immediate 

 retreat. The quickest way to take a populous 

 terrestris nest is to stupefy the bees by stopping 

 the hole with a rag on which have been placed a 

 few drops of ether. In all cases the bees that 

 return from the fields are perfectly harmless so long 

 as they do not smell the nest, and if one keeps 

 working at it they dare not approach near enough 

 to do this. A queen humble-bee will never attack 

 a human being, she only stings if she is held or 

 crushed. When the workers are alarmed in their 

 nest some of them crawl out and, turning over on 

 their backs, lie motionless, perhaps for a minute or 

 two, ready to seize and sting anything that touches 

 them. The surface -dwelling species are specially 

 given to doing this, often hiding themselves in the 

 nest material, which is coloured like themselves, 

 and one has to be careful not to put one's hand 

 on them. The two surface -dwelling species, B. 

 sylvarum and B. helfcramis, are very calm when 



