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or since. It contained three full quarts of combs, and there was nearly a pound of 

 honey-comb filled. It shows how much sometimes a good season with good situation 

 will do. Huber mentions about 300 bees as near the number in a strong nest ; but 

 the majority, particularly in a wet season, contain a much smaller number. The nest 

 was found near the root of an old tree, in a wood near Hamilton, in Lanarkshire, which 

 had been cut down many years; and the combs were so placed, that any wet from 

 them was drained into a large space of hollow ground beneath. Near the new nest I 

 found, in another compartment, the remains of a nest full of decayed combs of the pre- 

 vious year. I have no doubt that one of the females had issued from this, and planted 

 the colony iu the same spot. For three mornings following I visited the nest, and col- 

 lected nearly 200 stray workers, which were either lost in the bustle of disturbing the 

 nest, or were out at work. However, I am indebted to this nest for my first observa- 

 tion of the wonderful habits of the males ; and which was afterwards confirmed to me 

 many hundred times. My garden was almost two miles from the nest, and having 

 collected nearly the whole of the bees, excepting some few drones which escaped, I do 

 not think any of the bees which I brought home went back to the old nest. Next 

 morning early, having opened the aperture in the wall where I had placed them, the 

 bees sallied forth in the most cautious manner, each worker bee, as it came out, re- 

 maining on wing very near the entrance, on which it made the closest observation, 

 going farther and farther until it took flight. About 10 o'clock, when the sun became 

 hot, several drones found their way out, and flew off without looking behind them, or 

 making observation like the workers ; and during the week nearly the whole of the 

 males departed never to return. 



" When taking the nest, I observed the same thing : those which escaped never 

 returned, like the workers, to visit the spot. To test this, I took several other nests of 

 the Apis terrestris, and placed them in very small hives made by the shepherds, and 

 found the same result. Within the first fourteen days after the drones are hatched, 

 they voluntarily depart, and commence searching for food for themselves, which they 

 do until the end of September or later, when they perish. Divine Wisdom has de- 

 prived them entirely of the power or faculty of returning to or finding the nest ; 

 indeed they make not the least observation on their departure, like the workers. The 

 male bee of Apis terrestris is a very handsome insect, and so unlike the worker, that 

 it cannot be mistaken for it, being nearly all over of a light buff colour, with a black 

 stripe on the back, excepting the abdomen, which is white. 



" How wonderful is this provision of Nature, when we contemplate it ! These 

 drones have the faculty of gathering honey but for themselves alone, during their vo- 

 luntary and necessary exile. They also copulate with the females, but not until they 

 leave the nest. I have witnessed about half a dozen of these connexions in my life- 

 time, one on the ground, and the rest on flowers and thistles. After the connexion, 

 they invariably take a flight, adhering together for a short time. This I have ob- 

 served in the months of August and September ; but I never saw a male and female 

 come out of the nest in coitu. 



" The most determined enemies to these bees are the field-mice, which destroy 

 more than two-thirds of them all over England. Near villages and small towns, I 

 have found their nests more numerous, which I attribute to the number of cats that 

 destroy the mice. Another enemy is a caterpillar, which gets into the outer coating 

 of the combs of Apis terrestris, and destroys the nest, if not discovered and killed. 

 Each species of wild bee has its own peculiar mode of going its round in fine weather, 

 some near the ground, others through hedges, trees, shrubs, &cc. 



