Ill 



WILD BEES 



THE wilder humble bees are a much-wronged 

 and slighted family. Their showy relatives, 

 the hive bees, make such a noise in the world 

 that they have appropriated most of the attention 

 which we have to bestow upon bees in general. 

 The naturalist and bee farmer vie with each other 

 in enlarging on the merits of the hive bee ; the 

 one extolling her as an example of intelligence and 

 the other as a source of profit, they have together 

 managed to induce us to devote to her an expendi- 

 ture of printers' type which ought to satisfy the 

 hungriest ambition for fame. But the poor humble 

 bee, like most poor relations, has been sadly over- 

 looked. Even the naturalist is inclined to treat 

 her as he does ordinary moths and beetles, bestowing 

 on her little more notice than is required to classify 

 and describe varieties ; and so the world follows 

 suit and nicknames the poor bees in disparaging 

 reference to their supposed inferior position in insect 

 society — ^nicknames them, for the name humble bee 

 is but a corruption of the true title bumble-bee, 

 which — like the scientific generic term Bombus, from 



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