S7GNS OF AUTUMN 225 



starve ; and therefore the hosts of summer 

 migrants quit Britain for the South. 



None but the swift and enduring can survive 

 this ordeal of travel. A few frosts act as a sharp 

 dismissal to the voyagers, and are fatal to those 

 remaining insects that have not secreted themselves 

 in warm retreats. 



It is then that the poor humble-bee, fatigued by 

 the labours of a few hours of sunshine, is overtaken 

 by evening shadows before his task is half-finished, 

 when he has only carried homeward one full 

 burden. Conscious of failing strength, he clings 

 to the decaying blossom where he made the last 

 vain search for food, and gradually falls asleep. If 

 roughly awakened, his weakness is plainly indicated 

 in a feeble attempt to repel with raised feet the 

 threatened attack. As night lowers, he becomes 

 numbed by cold. The morrow may dawn brightly, 

 and the sun shine clear in the sky, but in the time 

 of darkness a few more leaves have fallen from the 

 trees. The fading flowers glisten awhile in the 

 warm rays ; and beneath one of them the humble- 

 bee lies dead in the decaying herbage. He, too, 

 has perished, like the leaf, in the silence of the 

 16 



