BEES. 



from the eg'g, and secure a large brood for tlie next year , 

 he may keep a colony of those queer mole-crickets which' 

 show such sport if poked at with a straw ; he may transplant 

 an entire nest of ant, wasp, or hornet, without the possibility 

 of getting* stung-; or at all events, he may, at a trifling ex- 

 pense, set up a few hives of another of the same order, of the 

 common hive bee. These will, in fact, cost nothing ; as, if the 

 management be only passable, the produce of the hives will 

 pay their cost in the first year, and all after that will be sheer 

 gain. If, however, after long trial, the hives fail, let him not 

 be discouraged, but try again, leaving no method untried to 

 discover the cause of the former failures. There are few 

 places where bees cannot find a subsistence. Even in the 

 hjeart of large cities, men keep colonies of bees, who, although 

 their honey is not always of the finest flavour, yet thrive 

 very tolerably in their domiciles on the house-top or the 

 garret window-sill. All who are acquainted with the usages 

 of college society, would agree that a more unpropitious 

 locality for a bee-hive could scarcely be found than in a 

 college window, for bees have a peculiar objection to tobacco 

 smoke, which seldom ceases to exist within the college 

 walls, not to mention the pranks that would be played by 

 the more juvenile members upon the unfortunate bees 

 through the medium of a long pipe. Moreover, bees dis- 

 like loud and sudden noises. This taste of theirs is not 

 likely to be gratified by the learners of the cornet-a-piston, 

 post-horn, and other brazen instruments, which are usually 

 played without intermission for several hours daily (like the 

 court of the Flying Island, and with the same disregard for 

 time), and subjected to occasional flourishes at any hour of 

 the day or night. Then bees do not like strangers, of whom 

 they must see plenty, if they reside in a college. Yet a 

 colony of bees was kept, and successfully kept, in one of the 

 colleges at Oxford. Their master is now a well-known 

 a})iarian, whose works on bee management have met with a 

 well deserved reputation. For several years after he left 

 college, the bee-stands and entrance-boards might be seen in 

 the window, serving to remind the passer-by, that one man 

 at least existed in the college, whose mind did not deem the 

 study of insect Hfe too trifling for the intellect of a human 

 being. So let not the reader be deterred from the purchase 



