108 



ETON NATUKE-STUDY 



buried herself. There were four holes occupied, and two or three 

 unfinished, all within the space of three square feet. From this I 

 supposed that all parts of the bank were not suitable for the purpose. 

 On digging into the bank I found that it had a thick covering of 

 moss which was felted together, affording to the bees some pro- 

 tection from the frost." 



"At the beginning of September I slightly opened one of the 

 holes. J could see the back of the bee, this time one of the yellow 



banded species (see figure 

 105). She was moving 

 about, seemingly at work, 

 smoothing the interior of the 

 cell, and several mites were 

 climbing over her. I then 

 closed the cell. In the middle 

 o-f September, I opened 

 another ; the bee was quite 

 lively, and seemed inclined to 

 resent my interference. This 

 example also was infested with mites. December 30th (1854) I 

 have this day again opened one of the holes and found the bee not 

 at all torpid, but quite lively." 



"About the middle of the month of April (1855) the bee came 

 out. 1 have always understood that the ' queen ' humble-bees lived 

 beneath the ground through the winter, but I should have supposed 

 that they would have dug deeper holes in order to be further out of 

 the reach of the frost." 



Few pieces of work are more neatly done than the making of the 

 winter lid, which closes the lid of the edible snail, the largest of our 

 species (see figure 106), found most commonly on Chalk Downs. 



From a photograph by Wilfred Mark Webb. 

 FIGURE 106. The Edible Snail and its winter lid. 



