io8 THE HUMBLE-BEE 



domiciles three years previously, but finer material 

 brought there by mice, which had probably fre- 

 quented the nests during the long interval, otherwise 

 the tunnels could hardly have remained open so 

 long. 



The following winter, my interest in artificial 

 domiciles having revived, I determined to give 

 them a much more extensive and thorough trial 

 than previously. 



One of the chief difficulties in preparing a large 

 number of domiciles is to get a sufficient supply of 

 suitable material for the nests. My experience 

 seemed to show that moss is not so suitable as fine, 

 half-rotted grass, so I had some of the grass in the 

 apiary mown in January, when much of it was dead, 

 and in March when it was dry I stored it in empty 

 hives, carefully picking out the stalks and heads, and 

 cutting it with a pair of large scissors into lengths of 

 about two inches. In this way I got an abundant 

 supply of material, but it was far from being as fine 

 as that of a mouse's nest, and I feel sure the results 

 would have been better had the material been more 

 suitable. 



I placed about a dozen nests on the surface of 

 the ground under bee-hive roofs, inverted boxes, 

 and even tins. These nests kept fairly dry, but, 

 partly I think because it is not the regular habit of 

 any species of humble-bee to occupy nests in such 

 positions, and partly because the material was so 

 coarse, only one was occupied. This nest had been 

 remade by a mouse, and therefore consisted of the 



