274 



HARDWICKE'S SCIENCE-GOSSIP. 



always meeting with a drone on her first excursion, 

 as, if she often came out of the hive, a bird might 

 pick her up, or she might meet with a thousand 

 other accidents, and in that case, although there 

 might be thirty thousand bees in the hive, they 

 woiUd all die, as at that time they have no eggs or 

 brood from which to raise another queen, and all 

 the prosperity of a hive depends on that all import- 

 ant female the queen. 



At the end of July, when all swarming is over, 

 and the bees have no further use for the drones, 

 they kill them and turn them out of the hive ; and 

 it is very interesting to see a small working bee (in 

 a unicomb hive) seize a big burly drone ; and he runs 

 up and down, dragging the worker with him ; but 

 it sticks to him like a weasel on a rabbit, until it 

 bites a piece out of his wing, or he goes out of the 

 hive, falls down, never to rise again. The bees will 

 liave no lazy idle fellows in their hive, that never 

 do a stroke of work of any kind, but rob and live 

 upon the industry of others. It would not be a 

 bad thing if the Human Hive took a lesson from the 

 bees (and they can teach them many a wise thing) 

 and acted'somewhat in a similar way. 



" J. A.," on page 190, says : " A stock of bees 

 belonging to John Pender, Esq., at Minard Castle, 

 sent out a swarm of bees on May 28th, which 

 shortly returned again to the hive, and came out 

 again at intervals of a day or two for sis successive 

 times." In this case the old queen was injured in 

 some way that prevented her flying out with the 

 swarm, and they, missing her, soon returned ; but 

 when they swarmed the last time, the young queens 

 liad come to maturity, and went out with the last 

 swarm, which was hived and settled. It is not a 

 very uncommon thing for a swavm to go out with- 

 out the queen, but they always return again. This 

 is an illustration of the great advantage bar-frame 

 hives have over all others, as with them every comb 

 in the hive could he examined in five minutes, and 

 the true state of the case ascertained. 



Our dear old friend William Augustus Munn is 

 no more. He died rather suddenly on Sunday, 

 October 10th,?in the sixty-third year of his age. He 

 had a good, kindiheart, and did a great deal to raise 

 bee-keeping to the perfection it has now attained ; 

 and although Huberjwas the inventor of bar-frames, 

 — but his frames were an inch thick, and when put 

 together formed Jthe ends and top of the hive, — 

 Major Munn was the first to put bar-frames with a box 

 or case, in 1834, the same as the modern bar-frame 

 hive, which has raised bee-keeping in such perfec- 

 tion as to become of national importance in many 

 countries in the world. 



The Major took out a patent for his hive inlParis 

 in 1843, and wrote a pamphlet on bees in 1844,Iand 

 another edition in J1851 ; and to crown his^long 

 labours, in 1870 he reprinted his friend Dr. Edward 

 Bevan's work on " The Honey-Bee," which is the 



most scientific work on bees written in England. 

 Major Munn has also written a great many articles 

 for the journals and magazines in this country and 

 in America. 



We can now only deplore the loss of our dear 

 friend, with the matured vigour of his pen aud 

 intellect no more to be used for Science-Gossip. 



William Cahr. 



Newton Heathy near Manchester. 



MICROSCOPY. 



Pbepamng Fokaminifeea.— Your correspondent 

 "B. M." asks for an approved ;metbod of collect- 

 ing and preparing foraminilerous chalk. Usually 

 in the information given on this subject too little 

 is said about the method of collecting, for when 

 once a good gathering is made, the preparation is 

 easy. Let us go into a chalk-pit, and look for 

 recently excavated, large flint nodules, of irregular 

 form: the cavities between the flinty "fingers and 

 thumbs " will generally be found filled up with 

 light powdery chalk. Take this out carefully right 

 back to the farthest part of the recess. Now 

 examine a freshly-exposed section of a flint stratum ; 

 good material will be found in the "flint-holes" 

 laid bare by the quarryman's pick. In a few words, 

 search for foramiuifera in all places where the 

 delicate shells have never been exposed to pressure. 

 After a little practice it is easy to determine good 

 chalk from bad, by the sense of touch only : if it 

 powders freely with a roUiug feeling between the 

 finger and thumb, be sure your sample is good. In 

 the cavities of hollow spherical flints may be found 

 much of interest,— spicules, spongites, zoophytes, 

 minute corals, &c. ; but the forammifera are generally 

 more or less silicified, and do not show so well as 

 those gathered from the cavities, which are really 

 outside the flint. A rough examination of your 

 samples is best made by taking a pinch of the 

 chalk and washing it in a test-tube; and by a 

 process of levigation dividing the fluid and sus- 

 pended chalk into three or four lots : by this means 

 you find out whether your sample contains large or 

 small specimens, and in what quantity. Having 

 pitched upon your best gathering, take more pains 

 in your washing process ; and the shells may be 

 obtained as clean and unbroken as could be wished. 

 I like them best m balsam, using i or J objective 

 binocular, with light modified by passing through 

 ground glass of a pale blue tint. If " B. M." will 

 send me his address, I shall be pleased to forward 

 a slide of chalk from Guildford. — Arthur Angell, 

 F.R.M.S. 



The Tadpole of the Newt. — There is no 

 more beautiful sight under the microscope than the 

 circulation of the blood, and in order to view it to 

 the best advantage I know no subject superior to 



