INDEX. 219 



the queen, and the great attentions paid to her, controverted 

 by recent observers; they leave a cell to every egg, and 

 destroy the rest ; great care and affection for the young ; 

 in about twenty days after the egg was laid, the bee was 

 completely formed, and fitted to undergo the fatigues of its 

 state ; the cell being prepared, the animal soon transformed 

 into an aurelia, different from that of the common cater- 

 pillar ; when they begin to break their prisons above a hun- 

 dred are excluded in one day ; dreadful battles often ensue 

 between the young brood and their progenitors ; signs pre- 

 vious to their migrations ; after the migration, the queen 

 being settled, the swarm follows, and in a quarter of an 

 hour the whole body is at ease ; sometimes sacrifice their 

 queen, but never when the hive is full of wax and honey ; 

 the working sort kill the drones in the worm state, in the 

 cell, and eject their bodies from the hive among the general 

 carnage ; upwards of forty thousand bees found in a single 

 hive ; instances of expedition in working; in the first fifteen 

 days they make more wax than during the rest of the year ; 

 a hive sending out several swarms in the year, the first 

 always the best and most numerous ; a kind of floating bee- 

 house used in France, vi. 93. 



Bees in other countries. In Guadaloupe are less by half than 

 in Europe, and have no sting ; sometimes there are two or 

 three queens to a swarm, then the weaker deserted for the 

 more powerful protector ; the deserted queen does not sur- 

 vive the defeat, is destroyed by her jealous rival, and till 

 this be done the bees never go out to work ; at Guadaloupe 

 their cells are in hollow trees, sometimes with a sort of 

 waxen house, shaped like a pear, in which they lodge their 

 honey and lay their eggs ; their honey never congeals, is 

 fluid as oil, and has the colour of amber ; in the tropical 

 climates are black bees without a sting ; their wax is soft, 

 and only used for medicinal purposes, not being hard enough 

 for candles as in Europe ; whether the humble-bees have 

 a queen or not, there is one much larger than the rest, with- 

 out wings, without hair, all over black like polished ebony ; 

 this views all the works from time to time ; their habits ; the 

 honey gathered by the humble-bees neither so fine, so good, 

 nor the wax so clear or so capable of fusion, as those of the 

 common bees, vi. Ill, &c. 



Leaf-cutting Bees make their nest, and lay their eggs, 



among bits of leaves, vi. 116. 



Wall Bees, so called because they make their nests in 

 walls ; the male and female are of a size ; the former with- 

 out a sting, vi. 117. 



- Wood Bee, vi. 1 15. Mason Bee, 115. Ground Bees build 

 their nests in the earth ; the patience and assiduity of their 

 labour, 116. 



