WASPS AND MOTHS. 227 



of outlaws under the roof of an adjoining house. 

 Although much disheartened and perplexed, we at once 

 renewed our search, and, upon inquiry, found that the 

 missing bees had taken a southerly course across the 

 turnpike road, and it was therefore necessary to ask 

 permission to search the gardens of the houses opposite. 

 From one of these we observed, on looking through the 

 hedge, that the inhabitants of the' next house were on 

 the qui Vive. On inquiring whether they had seen a 

 colony of bees, the wary old dame replied that she "had 

 no bees but her own," and added that " they were very 

 much excited." Having asked permission to go through 

 the hedge to look at her bees, we soon discovered our 

 Ligurians on the top of the old lady's bee-house. There 

 was no difficulty in identifying our own bees ; their yellow 

 rings were as good as a private mark. Quickly hiving 

 the swarm, we took them home, and replaced them in 

 the hive they had quitted. It was almost destitute of 

 honey ; but by liberal feeding, and lessening the entrance 

 so that only one bee at a time could find ingress or 

 egress, we succeeded in inducing them to rest in their 

 old home. Thus nearly half a day's exertion was 

 needed to save a fine colony, which would otherwise 

 have been utterly lost by the power of the relentless 

 wasps. 



Much watchfulness is needed to prevent the lossef 

 swarms, and the foregoing incident may servte to suggest 

 the necessity of having hives so located as to be constantly 



Q5 



