BEES. 29 



servation which \ve possess, should have also conjectured 

 from analogy. The great difference between our reasoning- 

 and theirs is, that we, among- whom entomolog-y has risen to 

 the rank of a separate science, build our conjectures on the 

 foundation of well known habits of insects, whereas, the 

 older writers, who wei-e unacquainted with entomolog-y, drew 

 their analog-ies from human governments. The reader will 

 see how completely one author has taken human rule as his 

 g-uide. After a long- description of the personal appearance, 

 and presumed orig-in of the hive monarch, he proceeds to 

 observe : — 



" And if he chance to find among- his young- ones any 

 one that is a fool, unhandsome, hairy, of an angry disposition, 

 ill shapen, or naturally ill conditioned, by the unanimous 

 consent of the rest, he gives order to put him to death, lest 

 his soldiery should be disordered, and his subjects being- 

 drawn into faction, should be destroyed. He sets down a way 

 to the rest, gives order what they shall do — some he com- 

 mands to fetch water, others to make honey-combs within to 

 build them up and g-arnish them ; othersome to g-o and get in 

 provision ; those that are stricken in years he cherisheth at 

 home, the younger he exerciseth in labour and vicissitude 

 of employments ; and although he himself hath immunity 

 from mechanick labour, yet, as cause shall require, he also 

 refuse th not to work, nor doth he ever g-o abroad but for 

 health sake or necessity. If he be by reason of ag-e in 

 health, he marches as g-eneral in the vang-uard of his army, 

 and in person opposeth himself to all encounters ; neither is 

 he borne by his attentants willing-ly, unless it be when he is 

 so old and diseased that he cannot either go or fly. When 

 night comes on, the signal being given by the trumpeter, 

 the common sort are commanded to their lodging, and the 

 watch being- set, every one betakes himself to his rest. As 

 long- as the king- lives, all the swarm enjoys peace, and all 

 things are in quiet, for the drones keep themselves willingly 

 in their own cells, the eldei* bees are content with their own 

 places, nor do the younger run out of their own into the 

 elders' lodgings. The king lives apart from the rest in a 

 more eminent and large palace, with a waxen fence curiously 

 made, compassed about, as it were, with a kind of wall. A 

 little way from him dwell the king's children, to whom, ii' 



