Entomological Society. 3293 



Architect' has ordained their round of visits as an occupation. Each species has a 

 different flight, but Apis hortorum is by far the easiest to discover going its rounds to 

 the different haunts, as it flies very near the ground, and may be traced to some five 

 or six places, where it appears to stop. The other species vary their flight through 

 trees aud bushes, but invariably keep the same track, generally from 10 or 11 o'clock 

 till about 3 or 4, in fine sunny weather. 



" The whole of the Bomb matrices, about the beginning of September, begin to 

 get feeble and slow ; they lose their wings in many instances, and the females, many 

 of which leave the nest, look out for dry and convenient holes in the ground and else- 

 where to pass the winter in a torpid state. 



" Now of the moving habit of the drones Mr. Smith took no notice, and yet this is 

 one of the things I thought worthy of remark. I have pointed it out to several of my 

 friends many times, and I certainly think this eccentricity of the male a curious addi- 

 tion to their true history. 



" I can assure Mr. Smith that I shall be most happy next summer to meet him or 

 any other lover of the genus, and prove the whole of this. I will only add that I have 

 made the history of these insects my study for fifty years, and have taken at least 500 

 of their nests. I have also watched their nests in the fields for days and weeks, and 

 had my observations confirmed over and over again. 



" The great Mr. Kirby has himself said ' that the Bombinatrices are in many in- 

 stances so unlike (the males and females), that they may be mistaken for another 

 species, and that unless by intense application it is quite impossible for any one per- 

 son to be perfect in the history of more than one species.' And again, ' I am by no 

 means certain that I have not, in more instances than one, described the sexes under 

 different names ; until all can be traced to their nidi this is not easy to be avoided.' * 



" Mr. Smith's ' crowning remark ' on Mr. Kirby, I cannot find in his work." 



Mr. Smith then made the following observations : — 



" When, at the June Meeting of this Society, a paper by Mr. H. W. Newman on 

 some species of humble-bees was read, I, having paid some attention to their specific 

 differences, and also to their economy, felt it incumbent on me to offer to the Society 

 a few remarks as the results of my experience. In differing from Mr. Newman re- 

 specting the habits of the drones, or males, I gave but the result of my observations, 

 which induced me to adopt a contrary opinion ; this opinion, as I stated at the time, 

 was drawn from circumstantial evidence, and admitted even of the possibility of error ; 

 but I felt an additional persuasion to its adoption from having the support of Mr. 

 Kirby, who, in his ' Monographia Apum Angliee ' (ii. 367) says, ' I have myself seen 

 this insect entering the nidus of Apis lapidaria ; and what appears to do away with all 

 doubt upon the subject' (of its being the male), 'I saw this insect in the collection of 

 the celebrated Peter Collinson, with a memorandum affixed to it, that he had seen it 

 connected with A. lapidaria.' Mr. Newman now objects to my observations, at which 

 I am surprised ; because in making observations, it should be the sole object of the 

 naturalist to elicit truth, and he should always bear in mind that ' Nature is commu- 

 nicative at intervals only, and she must consequently be assiduously watched ; ' still 

 it is only to few that she raises the veil. 



" Since making the remarks alluded to, T have had the good fortune to have my 



* Kirby's ' Monographia Apum Angliae,' 208, 



