286 
FOREIGN BEES. 
apparently dead bees.* “ During the breeding 
season,” says Wilson in bis American Ornithology, 
“ his extreme affection for bis mate, and for his 
nest and young, makes him suspicious of every bird 
that happens to pass near his residence, so that he 
attacks without discrimination every intruder. But 
he has a worse habit than this, and much more 
obnoxious to the husbandman, and often more fatal 
to himself. He loves not the honey , but the lees y 
and, it must be confessed, is frequently on the look- 
out for those industrious little insects. He plants 
himself on a post of the fence, or on a small tree in 
the garden, not far from the hives ; and from thence 
sallies on them as they pass and rcpass, making 
great havoc among their numbers.” The ravages of 
this little tyrant arc not confined to the bee species ; 
he is to be seen often " in pasture fields, taking his 
stand on the top of rank weeds near the cattle, and 
making occasional sweeps after passing insects, par- 
ticularly the large black gad-fly. His eye moves 
restlessly around him, traces the flight of an insect 
for a moment or two, then that of a second, and even 
a third, until he perceives one to his liking, when 
with a shrill sweep he pursues, seizes it, and returns 
to the same spot to look out for more. This habit 
is so conspicuous, when he is watching the bee-hives, 
that several intelligent farmers of my acquaintance 
* Mr. St. John laid these dead hees on a blanket in the 
eun, and, mirabile diclu / out of the 171, no fower than 54 re- 
turned to life, licked themselves clean, and joyfully went back 
to their hives. 
