THE HONEY BEE. 273 



Mantles enfold thee ; me a little cottage, 

 And p. slight spirit of the Grecian muses, 

 Fate, not deceitful, gave ; and the malignant 

 Vulgar to pity. 



Gentle reader ! that is a long digression, certainly, but thou 

 wilt pardon us, for it is from the pen of Rusticus, and thou art 

 ever indulgent when he is addressing thee : he will soon be 

 again amongst us, and then he will take the " Log " in his own 

 hands, for we found we could not manage it so as to do him 

 justice. Now we return to the bees, and nothing shall again 

 induce us to wander. Select, if possible, a country that abounds 

 in lime-trees, furze, heath, clover, and thyme ; let the bowers 

 in thy garden be entwined and overshadowed with honeysuckle 

 and jasmine ; and cultivate, in abundance, borage, and vipers'- 

 bugloss, and mignionette, and sage. 



A beehive consists, like this highly-favoured nation, of 

 three estates, king, lords, and commons. The king of a bee- 

 hive is, however, always a queen ; here, only sometimes. The 

 lords are useless, except as perpetuators of the kind, and are 

 called drones ; at the end of the season, instead of being 

 allowed to riot on the riches of the commonwealth during the 

 winter, they are all put to death in the most summary manner. 

 The commons are called worker bees or neuters. 



The Queen is slow and majestic in her movements, and 

 differs from the workers in being larger, having a longer body, 

 shorter wings, and a curved sting ; she is accompanied by a 

 guard of twelve workers, who are always on duty. In what- 

 ever direction she wishes to travel, these guards clear the way 

 before her, always with the utmost courtesy, turning their faces 

 towards her, and when she rests from her labours, approaching 

 her in all humility, licking her face, mouth, and eyes, and fond- 

 ling her with their antennae. The principal engagement of the 

 queen is the laying of eggs : she may be called the mother as 

 well as queen of the hive. 



The Drones are all males ; they are less than the queen, 

 but larger than the workers ; they have no sting. The drones 

 live on the fat of the land, and are wholly without use as mem- 

 bers of the community, except as being the fathers of the future 

 progeny : when this sole office is accomplished, the workers 

 inform them very respectfully that they are no longer wanted ; 

 a buzzing and a bustle commences in the hive ; the workers 



no. in. VOL. II. N N 



