The Bee-Master of Warrilow. 



the crevices of the trees, all the blue-caps for miles round 

 trek to the bee-gardens. Of course, if the bees would only 

 keep indoors they would be safe enough. But the same 

 cause that drives the birds in lures the bees out. The 

 snow reflects the sunlight up through the hive-entrances, 

 and they think the bright days of spring have come, and 

 out they flock to their death. And winter is just the time 

 when every single bee is valuable. In summer a few hun- 

 dreds more or less make little difference, when in every 

 hive young bees are maturing at the rate of two or three 

 thousand a day to take the place of those that perish. 

 But now every bee captured by the tits is an appreciable 

 loss to the colony. They are all nurse-bees in the winter- 

 hives, and on them depends the safe hatching-out of the 

 first broods in the spring season. So the bee-keeper 

 would do well to include a shot-gun among his parapher- 

 nalia, unless he is willing to feed all the starving tits of 

 the countryside at the risk of his year's harvest." 



" But the blue-cap," he went on, " is not always con- 

 tent to wait for his breakfast until the bees voluntarily 

 bring it to him. He has a trick of enticing them out of 

 the hive which is often successful even in the coldest 

 weather. Come into the extracting-house yonder, and^I 

 may be able to show you what I mean." 



He led the way to a row of outbuildings which flanked 

 the northern boundary of the garden and formed additional 

 shelter from the blustering gale. A window of the ex- 

 tracting-house overlooked the whole extent of hives. 

 Opening this from within with as little noise as possible, 

 the bee-master put a strong field-glass into my hand. 



" Now that we are out of sight," he said, " the tits 

 will soon be back again. There they come — whole fami- 

 lies of them together ! Now watch that green hive over 

 there under the apple-tree." 



Looking through the glass, I saw that about a dozen 

 tits had settled in the tree. Their bright plumage con- 

 trasted vividly with the sober green and grey of the 

 lichened boughs, as they swung themselves to and fro 

 in the sunshine. But presently the boldest of them gave 

 up this pretence of searching for food among the 

 branches, and hopped down upon the alighting-board of 

 the hive. At once two or three others followed him ; and 



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