FLOWERS AND INSECTS 141 



out the other day a raw morning in early 

 June to look at the grandfather of all 

 bumblebees, who had alighted in a blossom 

 of the pale yellow iris. He was not fertil- 

 izing it, because he was under the petal 

 that bears that delicate brush of stamens, 

 so we thought he was probably boring for 

 nectar through the petal, or sucking it 

 through some tiny aperture we could not 

 see, as his abdomen was working strongly. 

 On lifting the petal and even touching him 

 with a pencil, he showed no sense of dis- 

 turbance. His wings were closely folded, 

 and the flower was heavy, cold, and wet, 

 as everything was in that chill morning. 

 Perhaps he was a little benumbed. At 

 last a prod with the pencil angered him, 

 and swinging down from the flower, he 

 bumbled off through the yard, finally 

 alighting on a peony. 



Occasionally bees wrangle over the right 

 to a flower, and two such I found in a 

 regular wrestle. They were not so de- 

 termined but that they could fly a little, 

 yet with obvious lack of mutuality in pur- 

 pose, falling to the ground, rolling over 



