126 FRESH WOODS. 



know that when they have given the fatal 

 stab their own life is forfeited. I have 

 often heard this said of wasps, and yet the 

 pugnacious wasp is ever ready with his sting. 

 He seems to think nothing of his latter end. 

 Shakespeare says of the humble-bee : 



" Full merrily the humble-bee doth sing, 

 Till he hath lost his honey and his sting ; 

 And being once subdued in armed tail, 

 Sweet honey and sweet notes together fail." 



Troilus and Cressida. 



And Sir John Lubbock of the bees: 

 "Though bees which have stung and lost 

 their sting always perish, they do not die im- 

 mediately, and in the meantime they show 

 little sign of suffering from the terrible injury." 



Possibly in stinging hornets suffer as much 

 pain as they give ; that, however, is only 

 surmise. Anyway, it is not nice to have 

 them in one's garden for children to play 

 with. 



I watched them, and seeing one strike a 

 bee-line, I followed ; but he only flew a hun- 

 dred yards away to a neighbouring lime tree 

 in the orchard, under which the children 

 were used to play. 



The body of this lime from the ground up 

 to the branches was alive with hornets. I 

 suppose they were after the sweet gum that 



