sitting on the rear wall of the tent, and 'when he went 

 to bed, he was greeted by the well known buzzing, 

 for tw r o of the homeless bees had taken lodgings under 

 his pillow, while three more had retired into his 

 blankets. 



The plan of peaceable eviction having failed, the 

 fishermen closed his tent on the fifth day and stayed 

 in camp. From time to time more bumblebees came 

 home and he killed them as they tried to get into the 

 tent. The total number of bees killed w r as one hun- 

 dred and twenty-seven ; and no more returned after 

 the fifth day. During these five days the camper 

 was stung only once by a bee, which he accidentally 

 touched as it was sitting on the wall of the tent. 



Whether the bumblebees stay out nights as a matter 

 of choice, or whether they range so far that they can 

 not return every night, I do not know. 



At all events the life of the "Yellow-breeched phil- 

 osophers" does not seem to be monotonous. 



I returned to the bumblebee nest on the St. Croix 

 about the first of October. Rains had raised the 

 water level and soaked the nest. The unhatched lar- 

 vae had changed into a sort of wax, and there were 

 several drowned bees in the wet ball of moss. 



This seems to confirm the idea that bumblebees do 

 not build their own nest and have but little choice in 

 the site of their nests. They have come to depend en- 

 tirely on the deserted nests of mice which are often 

 built in meadows too wet and cool for insects so de- 

 pendent on warmth and sunshine. The foundress of 

 the nest on the St. Croix, for it is always a bumblebee 

 queen that selects the nest and starts the colony, had 



12 



