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another male specimen of Macropis labiata, it was at the little 
thistle ; this makes the fifth specimen taken in Britain, which are 
all males, and I think without doubt, establishes this as the 
locality for the one Mr. Brown took last year ; there is hardly any 
doubt but that the female will yet be taken there, if looked for. 
At the same time and place I took two females of the rare 
Notnada xanthosticta ; the bad weather which prevailed at the 
time, most likely had something to do with my not taking more of 
either species; the day I took them the sun shone for full half an 
hour, when as usual, a storm came on and I got instead of more 
insects, a wetting. Andrena decorata again abounded at the 
flowers of the bramble in this neighbourhood, and though most 
plentiful, the red variety were very scarce indeed, nearly all being 
dark. 
Bees seem very uncertain in their appearance, in some seasons 
certain species appear in numbers, and the next season none or 
next to none are to be found anywhere. Nomada jacobcca 
abounded last year whilst this year I did not see a single specimen. 
Andrena smithella was tolerably abundant this year, and before 
I had only taken a single female. Bees are only to be found during 
the really fine weather of Spring, Summer, and Autumn, when 
the country is in its loveliest state; and the situations it takes 
one to, are the most attractive, where the wild flowers bloom 
the most freely ; can anything bo more delightful than to find 
one’s self in such a place, the air laden with the perfume of many 
flowers, and alive with these industrious little creatures, many of 
them humming over their work with as much variation in their 
notes as there is in an Eolian Harp, (I say many of them for some 
are silent flyers,) their hum on such occasions as these is the con- 
tented hum of a self satisfied bee, but they have far different notes 
to these, just disturb them, and they will sometimes fly about one’s 
head, with an angry, shrill, piping note, then again, take them in 
your fingers, and they will emit quite a piteous whine; some, instead 
of the easy, comfortable drone, hum with an eager, restless note, as 
if they thought every minuto ought to have ninety seconds instead 
of sixty, and all intermediate notes may be heard. 
