Journal of Proceedings. lxxix
the bees fell victims to the attacks of wasps. The idea that the bees had
been poisoned could not be entertained, inasmuch as Mr. Cole had always
understood that the nectar of the Lime tree was an excellent honey-
making material.
Mr. Stevens (the apiarist), who was present as a visitor, confirmed
this, and said that Lime blossoms were highly valued by bee-keepers.
The President referred to a note by Mr. Slater read before the Entomo-
logical Society, in which certain flowers, notably the dahlia, the passion-
flower, the crown imperial, and the oleander, were stated to have a
narcotic action upon Humble- and Hive-bees. The Rev. L. Jenyns, in
his ' Observations in Natural History,' mentions that bees which visit
dahlia flowers are "soon seized with a sort of torpor," and often die
unless speedily removed. He quotes also a writer in the ' Gardeners'
Chronicle,' who pronounces the cultivation of the dahlia "incompatible
with the success of the bee-keeper."
Mr. R. M. Christy said that the phenomenon in question had been dis-
cussed in a little magazine published by the Natural History Societies
attached to the Friends' Schools, and there he thought birds were accused
of the death of the bees.
[By Mr. Christy's kindness we are enabled to give the following extracts
from ' The Natural History Journal, conducted by Societies in Friends'
Schools,' vol. iv. York, 1880 :—
"Bees Eaten out Hollow.—On the 25th July my children found
under a large Lime tree in my garden, which was then in full flower,
between 50 and 100 dead and dying bees. They were all of the same
species, the Common Yellow-banded Humble-bee, Bombus terrestris, I
believe [= B. virginalis, K]. On examining these I found that nearly
all of them had their insides eaten away ; in most cases the abdomen had
been excavated, but in some the thorax, and several wanted the head.
Usually the hole was a large one, and all the soft parts were gone,
leaving only the shell. One which I found had the whole of the thorax
excavated from the back, which had been eaten away, with a hole one-
tenth of an inch in diameter, yet the insect was still alive, and crawled
about for more than an hour. Were these bees stupefied or poisoned by
the honey of the Lime tree, and afterwards attacked by some predatory
insect when on the ground ? "—F. W. Pim, Monkstown, Co. Dublin,
(loc. cit., p. 129).
This letter was submitted to Mr. W. D. Roebuck, of Leeds, who com-
mented upon it as follows :—" It is noticeable that a case precisely
similar to that detailed by Mr. Pim was brought under my notice in 1877
by Mr. James Varley, of Huddersfield. (See ' Naturalist' for October,
1877, vol. iii., pp. 41:—11.) .... Mr. F. Smith suggested the pro-
bability of the bees having been killed by birds—perhaps by the
Butcher-bird or Shrike. Shrikes feed with avidity upon Humble-bees,
and on one occasion Mr. Smith saw a Shrike flying about in a bean-field
where Bombi were swarming, catching them, then settling on a gate-
post for a few seconds to devour portions of its prey, and then off again
for fresh captures. This still seems to me the most intelligible way to
account for the phenomenon. The blossoms of the Lime being attractive
to bees, would cause them to congregate thickly ; this aggregation of bees
would in its turn attract the attention of birds, which would reject the