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HONEY-BUZZARD 



HONEY-EATER 



by the centrifugal extractor, or by the more tedious 

 and less perfect method of cutting the comb in 

 pieces and running the honey through a bag placed 

 near a fire. The best form of comb-honey is that 

 which is termed virgin honey. It is contained in 

 pure white cells of very thin wax. These cells 

 have never been used by the bees for any other 

 purpose than the storage of honey. When the 

 cells have been previously used for the incubation 

 of eggs and the development of bees through the 

 larva stage they become discoloured and much 

 thicker in the walls, and after repeated use in 

 breeding they become quite black. Comb-honey 

 in dark-coloured cells is of very inferior quality. 



From the remotest times honey has been em- 

 ployed as an article of food. And to the ancients, 

 who were unacquainted with sugar, it was of more 

 importance than it now is. 'A land flowing with 

 milk and honey' offered the highest conceivable 

 advantages to the eastern mind. The honey of 

 Hymettus, a mountain in Attica, and of Hybla, a 

 mountain in Sicily, were of old held in high repute, 

 doubtless in consequence of the wild thyme and 

 other fragrant herbs growing upon them. The 

 honeys of Narbonne and of Chamonix for similar 

 reasons are now held in high estimation, as also 

 the heather-honey of Scotland. Taken in moderate 

 quantity, honey is nutritive and mildly laxative. 

 Some few kinds possess poisonous properties, such 

 as that of the Brazilian wasp and the honey of 

 Trebizond gathered from the Azalea pontica. Much 

 adulterated honey is sold : see ADULTERATION. 



As a demulcent and flavouring agent honey is 

 used in many preparations of medicine. It is also 

 used in the preparation of several popular sweet- 

 meats and in the manufacture of some kinds of ale. 

 Mead is a fermented liquor made from the washings 

 of the combs from which honey has been extracted. 

 Large quantities of honey are annually imported 

 into Great Britain from America, especially from 

 California, where many large bee-farms exist. See 

 BEE ; and for the Honey Ant, see ANT. 



Honey-buzzard, or BEE-KITE (Pernis api- 

 vorus), one of the Falconidoe, allied to both kites 

 and buzzards, but with many peculiarities, such as 

 the thick feathering of the sides of the head down 

 to the base of the bill. It winters in Africa, and 

 breeds in the wooded districts of north Europe, 

 ranging, however, as far east as China and Japan. 

 To Britain it is usually only a visitor, and that not 

 very commonly ; but there are records of its occa- 

 sional breeding here. Howard Saunders tells how 

 collectors of ' British ' specimens paid 5 for a 

 couple of eggs, or 40 for a pair or old birds, till 

 the breeding virtually ceased. The honey-buzzard 

 owes its name to its habit of plundering the nests 

 of bees and wasps for the sake of the larvae, and 

 apparently also the honey. It also devours grubs 

 of many kinds and various small animals. The 

 nest, often founded on that of some other kite, is 

 situated on some leafy tree, and may be further 

 concealed by a covering of leaves, which are re- 

 placed as they wither. The eggs, usually two, are 

 laid in June, which is late for a bird of prey. The 

 genus includes a few other species. 



Honeycomb .llotli. or BEE-MOTH (Galleria), 

 a genus of small moths in the same family as the 

 Grass-moths (Crr-mbus), and noteworthy for the 

 habit some of the species have of infesting bee- 

 hives. There they deposit their eggs ; and the 

 larva? feed on the honeycomb, through which they 

 make tunnels lined with silk. In a corner of the 

 hive the cocoons are spun, and the metamorphoses 

 accomplished. There are two broods in the year, 

 and the later pupae sleep through the winter. The 

 best-known species, G. mellonella, is a satiny moth, 

 about an inch across the wings. When they occur 



in numbers they are very injurious or even quite 

 fatal to the hive. They appear to enjoy immunity 

 from the stings. A smaller species ( G. alvearia ) is 



Honeycomb Moth : 



a, Galleria mellonella ; 6, larva ; c, pupa ; d, larva working its 

 way through honeycomb ; e, Galleria alvearia. 



also distinguished by some authorities. Humble- 

 bee nests are infested as well as bee-hives. 



Honey-dew, a viscid saccharine exudation 

 which is often found in warm dry weather on the 

 leaves and stems of plants, occurring on both 

 trees and herbaceous plants. It is often, but not 

 always, associated with the presence of Aphides, 

 Cocci, and other insects which feed on the juices of 

 plants, and its flow is ascribed to their punctures ; 

 but the rupture of the tissues from any other cause, 

 such as the state of the weather, seems also to 

 produce it, and warm dry weather seems to be 

 necessary for the production in the sap of that 

 superabundance of sugar which is thus thrown oft'. 

 Aphides themselves exude by certain peculiar 

 organs (see APHIS) drops of a fluid which is called 

 honey-dew, which probably differs considerably 

 from the direct exudation of the plants on which 

 they feed, but mingles with it where they abound. 

 Honey-dew is often so abundant as to fall in drops 

 from one leaf to another on to the ground, some- 

 times falling from trees even as a copious shower. 

 Different kinds of manna are the dried honey-dew 

 or saccharine exudation of certain plants. See 

 MANNA. But very generally this exudation, as it 

 dries, coats the surface of leaves and branches with 

 a clammy film, to which everything brought by the 

 atmosphere adheres, and on which moulds and other 

 small fungi soon grow, and thus the pores of the 

 plant are clogged and its health is impaired. 

 Gardeners are therefore careful to wash off lioney- 

 dew with the syringe. Orange and lemon planta- 

 tions sometimes surfer great injury from the abund- 

 ance of honey-dew ; and it has proved a cause of 

 very great loss in the coffee-plantations of Ceylon. 



Honey-eater, or HONEY-SUCKER, the name 

 of a large family of birds (Meliphagidae), tribe 

 Tenuirostres, order Insessores, characterised by 

 their long, sharp, slender, curved bills, and their 

 long cleft extensile tongue terminating in a pencil of 

 bristle-like filaments. They are entirely confined to 

 Australia and the islands included in the Australian 

 region, where they are very abundant, living on 

 honey and insects, which they are particularly well 

 adapted for gathering from the flowers of such trees 

 as the Eucalyptus and Banksia. Twenty-three 

 genera and 190 species are enumerated. Several of 

 the genera are confined to Australia, others to New 

 Zealand, and a few range over the whole Australian 

 region. In India and Africa they are replaced 

 by the Sun-birds ( Nectariniidae ). They are birds 

 of active habits and generally very beautiful 



