The morning news., 1899-04-03

/ SO after all you are not cohuescendlng SO
/ very much when you make friends with
I humble bee.
The best way is to catch fine, large
! Specimen as carefully as possible, with an
/ insect net, if you have one. When freed
/ in the room she will fly at once to the win
! dow, evidently expecting to escape Her
surprise and anger at meeting the invisible
but impossible glass or the wire screen
are great, but th9y soon vanish. She
tries again and agal IN to get out, and bites
! frantically at everything in her way, bur
in a few hours gives up the useless strug-
gle and accepts the situation with philo-
/ sophical cheerfulness worthy of imitation
] by, let us say-yourself.
( If she is fed regularly she soons learns
| the time and place and presents herself
for rations. She will eat syrup or mois,
sugar, but prefers honey. The amount or
| honey she is able to dispose of at one
meal will probably surprise you, as you
| watch her lick up a large drop
| II is while taking her meal that you may
get some of your most amusing and profit
able entertainment from her acquaintance
You will see her let down her probocis
from its concealed nook behind her head,
and shoot out a long, brown wriggling
tongue from the end. With this she ticks
up the delectable meal your have provid-
| ed with eager enjoyment that repays
H..
When satisfied with watching the tongue
and its movements you can vary your en-
tertainment by omitting the honey meal
and providing instead various kinds of
| flowers. Present Lady Bombus with one
| kind at time and watch her method of
| extracting the honey. She will sometimes
| give a very interesting exhibition of stu
pidity in hunting for the nectar in a new
| flower For strange as it may seem. bees
/ Eva.N
| by actual experiment, and often try a great
many times before they are successful.
| Once successful, however, the bee goes
rapidly to other flowers of the same kind
| and makes no more blunders. 1t is very
funny to watch a bee find its way to the
nectary of the iris. When this is once ac-
complished, however, no other iris flower
| can puzzle her.
BY confining bees in a room with flow
ers, one can make many interesting discov-
| cries concerning the way in which the
flowers are fertilized by the bees. One
| may stand before particular clump of
| blossoms out of doors all day long and
| not detect the secret of its method of fer
tilization-but put a hungry bee on a
flower, and you will come at the truth at
once. -4s- .t
The bee rises early or late according to
| the state of the weather. She is a very
soou pdloihetet, ana Wnen you hear her
| bustling about soon after daybreak Won
may be sure of a fine, sunny day. Bur II
she does not appear until late in the morn
| ing, then you do not want to go far from
| home without your umbrella. If II Is duIl
and rainy her ladyship may not appear al
all, or she may come iclly9fotthi late IN the
day, though she knew it was no dav
Tor going abroad and only meant to look
out of the window.
! min
| on fair ones will make many excursions
about the room. and, very likely. over vour
| person; but you will soon come NOT "a
| mind the tickling of her toes snV mora
| than you do the presence of a house hv
| Inc only precaution you need observe is
to keep still until she has finished her in
| Vesugations and gone off.
| She will never sting unless frightened or
hurt. and will submit to a good deal of
careful handling. As long as she feels that
you are only seeking knowledge and not
striving to hurt her, she will respect your
position even if she cannot understand IL
and viii keep her sting out of your way.
IL requires a creditable amount of pres
ence Of mind TO sit and calmly see a bum
Bile bee coming up the toe of your shoe
evidently aspiring higher In this case. a
| nip with the fingers or a brush from a
ran or paper will change her mind and
| SNiiN HSt SSdIHptIiuB OIL across the floor in
another direction. One soon becomes ac-
customed to extracting pet humble bees
from ones sleeves before putting on gar
| ment; and the slight Inconvenience they
occasion is much more than repaid by the
pleasure their company is able to afford.
When they occupy your room always
shake a garment before using it, when, il
they have chosen to take a nap in it, they
will announce their presence by a loud ex-
f-fy 1Iat
ton, also never to walk about without
wearing shoes or slippers.
Moreover, cultivate a stoical heroism
with regard to bee stings. and remember
that an occasional sting is good discipline.
1t probably gives more discipline with less
effort than any other known application.
! Make up your mind that you win not care
If you are stung and the probabilities are
you never will be. Having frequently
occupied a room with half a dozen or more
humble bees. the writer has yet 10 be
stung by one. and this in face of the fact
that bundle bees have been found and ex-
! tracted from almost every article of wear
| ing apparel. The main thing is to keep
| calm and give the bee time II II crawls
into your clothes. IL is as anxious to
escape as you are to have it escape; and
| gently shaking the substance will cause
it to continue its efforts at freedom, until
DOlH IL ana you are renewed OF edcn 0INeT
| presence.
One Of the most Interesting habits of our
bee is the way it performs its toilet For
this purpose It has most astonishing out
fit of combs and brushes, which it always
carries about with II and uses constantly
II is the cleanest OF creatures, and Is for
ever drawing it's antennae through the Gu
rious structure on each of its forelegs-
a structure evidently designed for this
sole purpose-and brushing out its eye
hairs and the hair of its head with other
specially devised bee cleaning instruments
In fact, all six Of it's legs are a perfect
tool-house of implements with which to
keep clean. And all these things can be
seen and studied with the naked eye
though a maguifylng glass will reveal
many unsuspected and delightful truths.
In short, we cannot live an observing
life with a humble bee without cleaning
facts interesting to the individual and val
liable to science; for even the wel4known
Bombus has still its secrets, which It Is
willing to tell to any one who will take
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