NOTES BY THE WAY 



the interior suggested their dainty taste. But when 

 I found it, its sole occupant was a bumblebee, 

 . the mother or queen bee, just planting her colony. 

 She buzzed very loud and complainingly, and stuck 

 up her legs in protest against my rude inquisitive- 

 ness, but refused to vacate the premises. She had 

 only one sack or cell constructed, in which she had 

 deposited her first egg, and, beside that, a large loaf 

 of bread, probably to feed the young brood with, 

 as .they should be hatched. It looked like Boston 

 brown bread, but I examined it and found it to be 

 a mass of dark brown pollen, quite soft and pasty. 

 In fact, it was unleavened bread, and had not been 

 got at the baker's. A few weeks later, if no acci- 

 dent befell her, she had a good working colony of 

 a dozen or more bees. 



This was not an unusual incident. Our bumble- 

 bee, so far as I have observed, invariably appropri- 

 ates a mouse-nest for the site of its colony, never 

 excavating a place in the ground, nor conveying 

 materials for a nest, to be lined with wax, like the 

 European species. Many other of our wild crea- 

 tures take up with the leavings of their betters or 

 strongers. Neither the skunk nor the rabbit digs 

 his own hole, but takes up with that of a wood- 

 chuck, or else hunts out a natural den among the 

 rocks. In England the rabbit burrows in the ground 

 to such an extent that in places the earth is hon- 

 eycombed by them, and the walker steps through 

 169 



