8 WILD BIRDS 



steeped garden, I have watched a feat as wondrous 

 as theirs, though it has not the glorious beauty. 

 This feat was by the smaller bombilius, which spins 

 in the air on hot days in spring as volucella spins at 

 midsummer. I wrote some years ago of volucella 

 spinning in the coppices in June, on a very lovely 

 day when the high-brown fritillaries were out in 

 their thousands. Volucella, whilst she spins, drops 

 here and there among the herbage of the copse a 

 white egg I have seen it falling through the air ! 

 I can hardly think it is for egg-laying that bombilius 

 spins over the gravel path or the sandy road ; but 

 it must be an important feat with this singular and 

 squat little thing ; for bombilius charges at any 

 insect that intrudes on its sphere, and after a short 

 rest on the road is up and a-spin again in the sun. 



Bombilius-the-less is shy. But by slow and 

 careful movements I can come near enough to see 

 the feat very well. Here is the most striking 

 feature of bombilius's spin : its wings in action do 

 not present a misty semicircle, as in many whirring 

 insects, nor do they present the form of a triangle 

 as do those of volucella spinning stationary in 

 space, with the acute angle oddly appearing to 

 spring from the body. The wings of bombilius 

 spinning over the road appear simply at rest. Their 

 outline is clear, as if bombilius were pinned to the 

 cork-lined box of a collector. When bombilius 

 settles on the road, and its wings are spread out 

 really motionless, they look as they looked whilst 

 the little creature was hanging in space whirring 



