78 THE GAMEKEEPER AT HOME. 



These reeds sometimes grow to a great height, as 

 much as ten or twelve feet. Along the Thames they are 

 used, bound in bundles, to pitch the barges ; when the 

 hull has been roughly coated with pitch, one end of the 

 bundle of reeds (thickest end preferred) is set on fire and 

 passed over it to make it melt and run into the chinks. 

 So, mayhap, the Saxon and Danish rovers may have used 

 them to pitch the bottoms of their ' ceols ' when worn 

 from constantly grounding on the shallows and eyots. 



Here in the furze too is the haunt of the badger. 

 This animal becomes rarer year after year the disuse of 

 the great rabbit-warrens being one cause ; still he lingers, 

 and may be traced in the rabbit ' buries,' where he en- 

 larges a hole for his habitation, sleeps during the day, and 

 comes forth in the gloaming. In summer he digs up the 

 wasps' nests, not, as has been supposed, for the honey, but 

 for the white larvae they contain : the wasp secretes no 

 honey at all, and her nest is simply a series of cells in 

 which the grubs mature. Some credit the fox with a 

 fondness for the same food ; and even the hornet's nest 

 is said to be similarly ravaged. It is the nest of the 

 humble-bee which the badger roots up for the honey. 

 The humble-bee uses a tiny hole in a dry bank, some- 

 times a crack made by the heat in the earth, and really 

 deposits true honey in the comb. It is very sweet, like 

 that of the hive bee, but a little darker in colour and 

 much less in quantity. The haymakers search for these 



