OF NOKTHUMBERLAND AND DURHAM. 155 



preiod was put to it by suffocation with lighted straw, for the 

 sake of seeing the mechanical skill in the structure of their 

 combs. They were six in number, one of the outer combs 

 measuring twenty-one inches in circumference, the middle comb 

 nineteen inches and-a-half, the other combs gradually less, the 

 Avaxen cells extremely thin and fine, elegantly variegated with a 

 light and deep brown, many of them measuring an inch-and-a- 

 half in depth, those in the last outer comb empty, a numerous 

 vermicular generation in all the rest, covered at the top with a 

 thin film of a pearl colour, round and prominent, glossy, and 

 shining like polished pearls. So many ranges of combs, con- 

 structed with so much beauty, and with the art of the nicest 

 geometrician, is a surprising spectacle. So noble a piece of 

 architecture cannot be viewed or reviewed without admiration 

 and a profound reverence of that Being who is the fountain of 

 wisdom. I am obliged for this curiosity to my respectful friend, 

 Christopher Eeed, of Chipchase, Esq., who first discovered it, 

 and was present with me to see it carefully taken out by his 

 servants." 



The gamekeeper, who was a south-country man and knew 

 the insect well, told my friend Geo. Wailes, Esq., that he had 

 seen the Hornet in the woods at Meldon Park. There is no- 

 thing improbable in the occurrence of the Hornet with us, as 

 it is found much further to the north. Linnaeus found it in 

 Sweden, and Zetterstedt in Lapland. 



Tribe 4.— ANTHOPHILA, Latr. 



Family 1. ANDRENID^, Lair^ 



Sub-Family 1. OBTUSILINGUES, Westw. 



Genus 1. COLLETES, Latr. 



1. C succineta, Lin. Smith, Monog., 3, 1 ; Melitta succiiu-ta, 

 Kirby, Mon. Ap. Angl., ii., 32. 



Plentiful near Wooler, September, Mr. J. Hardy. 



* Solitary Bees, consisting of males and females only. 



