286 FOREIGN BEES. 



apparently dead bees.* " During the breeding 

 season/' says Wilson in his American Ornithology, 

 " his extreme affection for his mate, and for his 

 nest and young, makes him suspicious of every bird 

 that happens to pass near his residence, so that he 

 attacks without discrimination every intruder. But 

 he has a worse habit than this, and much more 

 obnoxious to the husbandman, and often more fatal 

 to himself. He loves not the honey, but the bees ; 

 and, it must be confessed, is frequently on the look- 

 out for these industrious little insects. He plants 

 himself on a post of the fence, or on a small tree in 

 the garden, not far from the hives ; and from thence 

 sallies on them as they pass and repass, making 

 great havoc among their numbers." The ravages of 

 this little tyrant are not confined to the bee species ; 

 he is to be seen often " in pasture fields, taking his 

 stand on the top of rank weeds near the cattle, and 

 making occasional sweeps after passing insects, par- 

 ticularly the large black gad-fly. His eye moves 

 restlessly around him, traces the flight of an insect 

 for a moment or two, then that of a second, and even 

 a third, until he perceives one to his liking, when 

 with a shrill sweep he pursues, seizes it, and returns 

 to the same spot to look out for more. This habit 

 is so conspicuous, when he is watching the bee-hives, 

 that several intelligent farmers of my acquaintance 



* Mr. St. John laid these dead bees on a blanket in the 

 Bun, and, mirabile dictu ! out of the 171, no fewer than 54 re- 

 turned to life, licked themselves clean, and joyfully went back 

 to their hives. 



