76 CLASSIFICATION, PHYSIOLOGY, ETC. 



alarm and seek their homes for safety. If overtaken 

 and blown down, they usually crawl under leaves and 

 other places of shelter, where they remain in safety 

 till the storm has passed over. Yet numbers are 

 frequently caught out and perish from cold and wet. 

 Their disposition is mild and peaceful, while rap- 

 idly acquiring riches ; but as soon as pasturage fails 

 they become irritable, and will not permit intrusion 

 without resisting it sharply. 



THEIR INDUSTRY. 



" Industry belongs to their nature. When the 

 flowers yield honey, and the weather is fine, they 

 need no impulse from man w to perform their part. 

 When their tenement is supplied with all things nec- 

 essary to reach another spring, or their store-house 

 full, and no necessity or room for an addition, and we 

 supply them with more space, they assiduously toil to 

 fill it up. Rather than to waste time in idleness dur- 

 ing a bounteous yield of honey, they have been 

 known to deposit their surplus in combs outside the 

 hive, or under the stand. This naturally industrious 

 habit lies at the foundation of all the advantages in 

 bee-keeping; consequently, our hives must be con- 

 structed with this end in view, and at the same time, 

 not interfere with other points of their nature." 

 Quinby. 



