effective. I had not been in the habit 

 of using medicine in my family in a 

 long time, but depended entirely upon 

 water. After pulling out the stingers, 

 I stripped the child, tilled the tub half 

 full of water, right cold from the well, 

 and placed her in it for about a minute ; 

 then took her out and wrapped her in a 

 sheet and put her into the cradle. I 

 repeated this process, bathing her about 

 3 times, 10 minutes apart, and had the 

 satisfaction of seeing it alleviate her 

 sufferings. After I had bathed her 3 

 times and wrapped her up warmly in 

 the sheet, she dropped to sleep and did 

 not wake for about 20 minutes. Then 

 the fever and pain woke her up, and I 

 bathed her again. After two more such 

 baths she slept soundly, and on waking- 

 seemed to be nearly recovered. By the 

 time her mother came home that even- 

 ieg, she was able to be around with 

 scarcely any marks of the stings upon 

 her person. I do not believe that any 

 other than water treatment would have 

 brought about such a good result in so 

 short a time. 



Drone-Killing Birds. 



We find the following from the pen of a 

 practical bee-keeper, in the Pacific Rural 



Press : 



I have followed raising bees for the last 7 

 years, and made it my only occupation. I 

 at one time thought the bee-bird was destroy- 

 ing my bees, and what to do to get rid of 

 them 1 did not know, for there were hun- 

 dreds of them in the spring building their 

 nests in the oak timber, under which my 

 bees are sitting. After watching them very 

 attentively for several years, I discovered 

 they did not eat the working bees, but fed 

 on the drones. Around my house, and for 

 300 yards below and above, there are small 

 oak trees, under which my bees are sitting. 

 I can sit in my door and see hundreds of 

 bees coming in and going out of the hives, 

 and sitting on twigs are half a dozen bee- 

 birds. They paid no attention to the work- 

 ing bee, but as soon as I would hear a drone 

 I could see one of the bee-birds give a swoop 

 and capture him. A drone is much larger 

 than the honey bee and they make a louder 

 noise, and can be easily seen and heard at a 

 distance. In place of the bee-bird being an 

 enemy to the working bee, he is their friend. 

 He is a protector of the poultry yard ; a 

 crow or hawk dare not come near my prem- 

 ises. If a stray one should come this way, 

 he will be certain not to try it again. The 

 bee-bird is the king and terror of the feath- 

 ered tribe. As soon as they and the honey 

 bees kill off the drones, the bee-bird disap- 

 pears and you see him no more until the 

 next spring. Some people kill the bee-bird 

 nd examine his craw, and find bees in it, 

 and that is sufficient evidence to cendemn 

 him ; but if they would be more particular 

 they would find the food to be drones. This 

 is my experience and my conviction. 



399 



For the American Bee Journal. 



Another Bee Enemy. 



A. J. COOK. 



From some bee-keeper of Louisiana, 

 whose letter I have mislaid, I have re- 

 ceived another predaceous fly. This 

 species much resembles Asilus Missouri- 

 ensis (see Manual of the Apiary, fig. 

 108); but as will be seen (fig. 1) does not 

 belong to the genus Asilus at all, but 

 to the genus Erax. In this genus the 

 third vein of the wing (fig. 2, C) is not 

 forked as in the genus Asilus (see Man- 



Ftj / 



Erax. 



ual, 4th ed., fig. 130), but a disconnected 

 branch (fig. 2, E) is always present, 

 which is connected with the 3d vein by 

 a short cross vein. In the allied genus 

 Promachus, which includes the Ne- 

 braska bee-killer ; Promachus bastardi 

 the 2d vein forks (see 4th ed. Manual, 

 fig. 129). In Erax (fig. 3) as in Asilus 

 Promachus and Mallophora (see 4th ed. 

 Manual, fig. 128) the 3d joint of the 

 antennae ends in a bristle. The species 



Wing of Erax. 



of Erax are usually smaller than the 

 one in question, which is drawn natural 

 size in fig. 1st. Only a few days since 

 I caught a species of Erax three-fourths 

 of an inch long, which was sucking the 

 vitality from a common house ily. 



I can find no description of the Louis^ 

 iana Erax or bee-killer, so I subjoin the 

 following. Length \% inches. Gen- 

 eral color gray, with feet or tarsi, eyes, 

 base of beak, and portions of the dorsal 

 surface of each abdominal segment as 

 represented in fig. 1 are black. The 

 back of the thorax is dark gray, with 

 two heavy black longitudinal lines in 



