WILD BEES 63 



appointed to find that beyond helping herself to the 

 honey she evinced no desire to take up her quarters 

 in the vacant nest, and eventually despairing of 

 success in my endeavour to reconcile her to her 

 new surroundings, I gave up the attempt and 

 let her have her own way. She then spent several 

 days in beating against the glass of my windows in 

 the endeavour to get outside. Being much from 

 home at the time I took little further notice of her 

 then, and soon missing her, I concluded she had 

 found her way through the open window. One 

 warm day some weeks after, as I was quietly reading 

 in the room, I was a httle surprised, on hearing a 

 slight scratching noise near me, to observe her, 

 engaged upon her toilette, perched beside me on 

 the table-cover, out of the folds of which she had 

 evidently just emerged. She had apparently take 

 up her quarters permanently there, for after a few 

 short flights round the room she returned and event- 

 ually retired to her old quarters for the day. This 

 was the beginning of a long and interesting acquaint- 

 ance with my humble friend. Nearly every day 

 during the early summer she came out, and her 

 behaviour on these occasions was very curious. Her 

 early experience with the windows had evidently 

 made a great impression on her, and she never 

 attempted to escape that way now. Sometimes, 

 indeed, after a long interval, she would fly towards 

 the Hght, but before she reached the glass she invari- 

 ably turned back from what she had evidently come 

 to regard from painful experience as a delusion and 

 a snare. She made short trips about the room 

 all day, generally retiring in the evening to the 

 folds of the table-cover. On these occasions her 



