10 Transactions of the [Sess. 



of a hive ; but Sparrows are not enemies to Bees, and I venture to 

 suggest that the Mautuan swain was in error when, in the 4th 

 Georgia, he mentions the Swallow as a destroyer of Bees. Virgil's 

 remark may be literally translated thus — " The bloody-breasted 

 Swallow bears away in her beak the Bees while on the wing, sweet 

 morsels for her merciless young." And I am confirmed in my view 

 by the following remark from a correspondent in the last number 

 of the ' British Bee-Keeper's Journal.' He says : " I saw a Swallow 

 fly up to another which was sitting on a telegraph wire, and put 

 something into its mouth, and then go away ; the other almost 

 immediately dropped what it had received. Noticing that it 

 looked large, I went and examined it, and found it to be a large 

 drone." A writer in the ' Field Naturalists' Magazine ' for 1834 

 also states that, having observed some Swallows seize Bees in 

 passing his hives, he shot them, and on opening them found that 

 although they were literally crammed with drones, there was not a 

 vestige of a working Bee. The Blue Tit [Parus cceruleus) has also 

 been accused of killing worker Bees, but I very much doubt 

 whether any of our short-billed birds dare attack a stinging Bee. 

 Having mentioned the subject of Bees, it may be interesting to 

 many of our members to know that a new Bee to this country has 

 recently been introduced from Cyprus, and called the Cypriote Bee, 

 I saw lately a hive of these near London, and they are extremely 

 pretty insects, and very industrious — much smaller and lighter in 

 colour than the Ligurian or Italian Bees, now so common in our 

 apiaries. The owner of these Cyiariotes had them in a bar-framed 

 hive, and kindly took out several frames with the insects clustering 

 on them for my inspection ; but I am sorry to say he gave them a 

 bad character for irritability, and for using their stings at the 

 slightest provocation, being almost as bad in this respect as the 

 little vicious Egyptian Bees. But to return to the subject of my 

 note. The Flycatcher is most useful in destroying many insects 

 which are injurious to vegetation, and I will mention one species 

 in particular. We often see a white Cabbage Butterfly flitting 

 about, apparently in a most innocuous manner, over a bed of Cauli- 

 flowers or other plants of the Brassica tribe. But watch the insect 

 closely, and if a female, you will observe her settle first on one 

 plant, and then on another, at short intervals. Examine at once the 

 spots where she settled, and you will find small white eggs depos- 

 ited on the leaves. These soon become green grubs, which injure 

 and disfigure the plants — in many instances, where the grubs are 

 numerous, rendering the plants unfit for human food. Now, if you 

 have our friend the Flycatcher in the garden, the Butterfly's career 

 is usually cut short before it has time to do much mischief. Her 

 eye is upon it as it comes " over the garden wall," and it is soon 

 seized, its wings bitten off and carried away by the wind, and the 



