Bees. 6 1 



vance, and finally fades away, where the limes cease, 

 in the broad level of the opening * greeny field.' 

 These honey-bees seem to fly higher and to exhibit 

 much more activity than the great humble-bee : here 

 in the limes they must be thirty feet above the 

 ground. Wasps also frequently wing their way at 

 a considerable elevation, and thus it is that the hive- 

 bee and the wasp so commonly enter the upper 

 windows of houses. When its load of honey is 

 completed, the bee, too, returns home in a nearly 

 straight line, high enough in the air to pass over 

 hedges and such obstacles without the labour of rising 

 up and sinking again. 



The heavy humble-bee is generally seen close to 

 the earth, and often goes down into the depths of the 

 dry ditches, and may there be heard buzzing slowly 

 along under the arch of briar and bramble. He seems 

 to lose his way now and then in the tangled under- 

 growth of the woods ; and if a footstep disturbs and 

 alarms him, it is amusing to see his desperate efforts 

 to free himself hastily from the interlacing grass-blades 

 and ferns. 



When the sap is rising, the bark of the smaller 

 shoots of the lime-tree 'slips' easily — i.e. it can be 

 peeled in hollow cylinders if judiciously tapped and 

 loosened by gentle blows from the back of a knife. 



