66 IJKES. 



recently described. As to the bee-police, we shall content 

 ourselves with the illustration aftbrded by an anecdote. 

 '•' A few pounds of honey had been taken from a hive by its 

 owner, and placed in a closet of a room of which the door 

 was closed. The bee-})olice, however, appear to have been 

 following- the stolen g'oods, and watching- their opportunity, 

 stole in through an open window into the room, and thence 

 by means of a crevice into the closet itself. How the bees 

 must have enjoyed the sport as they hurried to and fro until 

 they had completely emptied the abstracted combs, and re- 

 de})osited the whole of the honey in the centre of the hive : 

 their own once more ! " 



Bees appear to be decidedly backward in surg-ery and the 

 medical art, and probably kill their sick and maimed, when 

 the cases are too difficult ; but then they take care to have 

 few of such cases. They are your true sanitary labourers. 

 See how carefully they clean the floor of the hive at every 

 favourable opportunity ; how they remove all decaying- or 

 dead exuviae^ They take the g-reatest care that none of 

 their own exuviae should fall upon the floor of the hive, and 

 always discharge it outside. To such an extent is this prac- 

 tice kept up, that ai"ter the winter season, the bees ma}'' be 

 seen leaving- the hive for that express purpose. It was 

 necessary, some years ag*o, to destroy a hive during- the 

 winter. I preserved a larg-e number of the bees for dissec- 

 tion, and did not And one, where the intestine was not 

 enormously swollen, and in some cases so much so that it 

 appeared almost impossible that the insect could fly at all. 

 Then they can also ventilate in hot weather. But that pro- 

 cess deserves a few words of explanation — it is at once so 

 interesting- and unique. The ventilating- bees take up their 

 position in two bodies, one larg-er than the other, near the 

 entrance, but so as to cause no interruption of the way. 

 The small bod}^ near the door turn their heads inwards, the 

 other and larger, standing- farther within, look towards the 

 entrance of the hive. The bees then uniting- their wings 

 together by means of small marginal hooks, so as to in- 

 crease the surface, move them to and fro with such ve- 

 locity, that the wings almost cease to be disting-uishnble. 

 This is hard work, and has to be continued incessnntly at 

 certain periods, so the ventilating- corps is renewed all the 



