158 
Psyche 
[September 
■sp- 
in the spring of 1921 the males were found flying on 
May 27th, when they were frequently seen on the flower- 
buds of the rambler roses. Often they seemed to be trying 
to bite their way into the buds. At evening they were often 
seen to climb to the top of a grass-blade, grasp the tip firmly 
in their jaws and go to sleep. Fig. 3 shows a male sipping 
sugar water from a piece of cotton. 
Fig. 3. The male of Anthophora abrupta. 
I have never seen mating occur at the bank, and I have 
often wondered if they do not go elsewhere for the purpose 
of meeting the females. At a point about one hundred yards 
distant, on a hill side facing the eastern sun, I repeatedly 
saw a number of males hovering and flitting over a barren 
spot about three feet square covered with old rusty slag. At 
first I suspected that this was the place of their courtship- 
dances, but I failed ever to discover a female there. Instead 
the males were often found devoting their attention to the 
rust-covered ashes, to which they clung with their jaws. 
That reminded me how the females of their species at Man- 
chester, Mo., during the previous summer had shown aston- 
ishing persistence in eating the rust from an old iron barrel- 
hoop and rusty fence- wire. Perhaps these males merely 
went to this bed of cinders to get their supply of mineral 
salts while the females were emerging and prospecting for 
burrows. This habit of licking rusty objects was not merely 
a casual occurrence but a purposeful and persistent activity ; 
it elsewhere attracted the notice of my companion, who 
