New Works on Bees. 561 



action, conjointly constitute the bee's tongue as it is termed, 

 there follows the description of the mandible, after which is 

 a passage referring to " this compound and truly wonderful 

 apparatus," meaning the tongue, trunk, or proboscis, inde- 

 pendent of the mandibles. 



We must not omit to notice the admirable taste in which 

 the Dedication to the Queen is penned ; one passage will 

 show its style. " The queen bee of every bee community has 

 been destined to fill her high station from a very early age, 

 (not always from her birth) ; she has the most diligent atten- 

 tion bestowed upon her, to qualify her for the important func- 

 tions which she has to perform : and she is, at all times, se- 

 dulously guarded from those hazards to which it is the lot of 

 bees more humbly born and educated to be exposed. In all 

 these particulars, I presume that a perfect analogy with your 

 Majesty may be drawn." 



Mr. Taylor's little work is written for the amateur bee-keep- 

 er ; for although the principles it inculcates upon the humane 

 or depriving system, are applicable to every hive, yet the cot- 

 tager, we fear, will never be able to follow them out in prac- 

 tice. The elegant pavilion represented, with ground plans 

 &c, is well adapted for a suburban garden, where everything 

 is kept in trim order, but the greater number of bee-growers 

 will, we fear, stick to the old plan of wicker hives, because 

 they are old fashioned, and, what is of more consequence, be- 

 cause they are cheaper than the " improved collateral venti- 

 lating hives." Upon this subject, however, Mr. Taylor says, 

 — " perhaps the hives in common use in most parts of this 

 country, are the worst adapted to their wants and habits, and 

 seldom last longer than three years, even when they are not 

 sooner consigned to the brimstone pit of destruction. These 

 are of straw, without any provision for enlargement and ven- 

 tilation, and are altogether anything but ornamental to a neat 

 garden." Thus if the cottager could but be induced to adopt 

 the wooden ventilating hives, he would be a gainer in the end. 



Mr. Taylor judiciously gives us directions for the manage- 

 ment of the hive in each season of the year. 



Without going to the length of an author who tells us of 

 a bee-master who always saw the ghosts of the bees the night 

 after he had burned them, the cottager should be instructed 

 by line upon line, and precept upon precept, that he can ob- 

 tain much more honey without killing the bees ; and it is on 

 this account that we approve of the two-penny tract, being 

 the third on our list, printed for distribution by the Ashmo- 

 lean Natural History Society, and understood to be from the 

 pen of Mr. Cotton, of Christ Church ; one of whose maxims 



