BEES. 27 



" Firet in a place, by nature close, they build 

 A narrow flooring, guttered, wattled, and tiled. 

 In this four windows are contrived, that strike 

 To the four winds opposed, their beams oblique. 

 A steer of two years' old they take, whose head 

 Now first with burnish'd horns begins to spread ; 

 They stop his nostrils, whUe he strives in vain 

 To breathe free air, and struggles with his pain. 

 Ivnocked down he dies ; his boAvels bruised within 

 Betray no wound, a thin, unbroken skin. 

 Extended thus, in their obscene abode 

 They leave the beast ; but first sweet flowers are strowed 

 Beneath his body, broken boughs and thyme, 

 And pleasing cassia, just renewed in prime. 

 This must be done, ere spring makes equal day, 

 When western winds on curling waters play ; 

 Ere painted meads produce the flowery crops, 

 Or swallows twitter in the chimney-tops. 

 The tainted blood in this close prison pent 

 Begins to boil, and through the bones fejrment. 

 Then, wondrous to behold, new creatures rise, 

 A moving mass at first, and short of thighs ; 

 Till shooting out with legs, and imped with wings, 

 The grubs proceed to bees with pointed stings ; 

 And more and more afiecting air, they try 

 Their tender pinions, and begin to fly. 

 At length, like summer-storms from spreading clouds, 

 That burst at once, »nd pour impetuous floods ; 

 Or flights of arrows from the Parthian bows 

 When from afar they gall embattled foes ; 

 With such a tempest through the skies they steer, 

 And such a form the winged ofispring bear." 



Dkyden's Viegil, Georg. IV. 1. 417. 



Need we wonder that the poet should take on trust in 

 his day, what " that great husbandman of Cornwall " would 

 recommend to others, after trialj in his day, so many cen- 

 turies later? Let us now see if we cannot trace, with 

 tolerable clearness, nature's own method of proceeding*. It 

 is not easy to follow the operations of the bees during* the 

 incidents we are about to describe, but patient observers 

 have succeeded in doing* so ; and with their aid, then, let us 

 again turn our eyes inwards upon the hive. Behold the 

 queen-bee, attended by her guard of some dozen bees, 

 moving- slowly and with regal dignity among her subjects. 

 You cannot mistake her for an instant, even if you did not 



