HIBERNATING ANIMALS 



107 



evidently contained an inmate which had entered and closed the 

 entrance by pushing back the earth which she had displaced. I 

 pushed a straw through the loose earth, and putting my head near 

 the ground, I could recognise the angry buzz of a disturbed humble- 



FIGURE 105. A Hibernating Humble-Bee. 



bee coming from quite near the surface. Afterwards I saw a bee at 

 work digging in one of the unfinished holes. This was one of the 

 large ' queens ' (of the black and red kind). She worked away for 

 some days, sometimes leaving, I suppose, in order to feed, and at last 



