114 



MY LIFE AS A NATURALIST 



is not necessary to tell, for the fairy-tale of the Queen, the in- 

 dustry of the Worker, and the use of the Drone are well understood. 

 I have watched the Wild Bees, too, the large Humble fellows, 

 whose drowsy monotone is one of the most delightful of country 

 sounds. Very often I stumble across a large Humble Bee, which 

 has taken so much nectar from the flowers that he has become 

 stupefied. I love to watch the Bees at the Sallow in Spring, 

 the Bramble blossoms in Summer, and the Michaelmas Daisies 



in Autumn. Even the 

 Bee-mimics, Hover Flies 

 and the rest, fascinate 

 me, especially the curious 

 Humble Bee Fly, with its 

 long proboscis. I note 

 its unfailing habit of returning to the 

 same spot time and time again. So, 

 too, have I watched the Leaf-cutter 

 Bee sawing small circular pieces from 

 my Rose leaves, and I have discovered, 

 not far away, its remarkable series of 

 thimble -shaped cells, each fitting into 

 the other, and each cell containing an 



egg- 

 Near my house there are a great 



^^ K| s f number of Privet bushes, and there, 



y\ !/// Kk when it is more or less full grown, I 



\ \S 'f -^ find the handsome larva of the Privet 



Hawk Moth. Green in general body 

 colour, its sides are richly ornamented 

 with stripes of heliotrope and white, and it bears on the hinder 

 part the curved " horn " so characteristic of the larva of Hawk 

 Moths. 



I delight in watching the Humming Bird Hawk Moth as it 

 hovers, Kestrel-like, in the air, thrusting its long tongue into the 

 heart of a Honeysuckle blossom, or the pale yellow flower of the 

 Evening Primrose. 



The first Brimstone Butterfly, fresh from its hibernating 

 quarters in Spring, spells ecstasy for an all-round-the-year 

 chronicler, and later, when the Buckthorn leaf-buds are showing, 

 I watch the female depositing her eggs. 



The Orange -Tip is another favourite Butterfly I never pass 

 by without observation, and I associate it with the pale Cuckoo 



50. LARVA OF PUIVKT 

 HAWK MOTH. 



