THE AMERICAN BEE JOURNAL. 



19 



' 'For some time Mr. Agassiz has been trying 

 to get living specimens of the insect so injurious 

 to the coffee tree ; the larva of a little moth akin 

 to those which destroy the vineyards in Europe. 

 Yesterday he succeeded in obtaining some, and 

 among them one just spinning his cocoon on 

 the leaf. We watched him for a long time with 

 the lens as he wove his filmy lent. He had 

 arched the thread upward in the centre, so as to 

 leave a little hollow space into which he could 

 withdraw ; this tiny vault seemed to be com- 

 pleted at the moment we saw him, and he was 

 drawing threads forward and fastening them at 

 a short distance beyond, thus lashing his house 

 to the leaf as it were. The exquisite accuracy 

 of the work was amazing. lie was spinning 

 the thread with his mouth, and with every new 7 

 stitch he turned his body backward, attached 

 his thread to the same spot, then drew it for- 

 ward and fastened it exactly on a line with the 

 last, with a precision and rapidity that machin- 

 ery could hardly imitate. It is a curious ques- 

 tion how far this perfection of workmanship in 

 many of the lower animals is simply identi- 

 cal with their organization, and therefore to be 

 considered a fun< tion, as inevitable in its action 

 as digestion or respiration, rather than an in- 

 stinct. In this case the body of the little ani- 

 mal was his measure ; it was amazing to see 

 him lay down his threads with such accuracy, 

 till one remembered that he could not make 

 them longer or shorter ; for, starting from the 

 center of his house, and stretching hisbody its full 

 length, they must always reach the same point. 

 The same is true of the so-called wathematics of 

 the bee. The bees stand as close as they can to- 

 gether in their hire for economy of space, and 

 each one deposits his wax around him, his own 

 form and size being the mould for the cells, the 

 regularity of which when completed excites so 

 much wonder and admiration. The mathemat- 

 ical secret of the bee is to be found in his structure, 

 not in his instinct. But in the industrial work 

 of some of the lower animals, the ant for in- 

 stance, there is a power of adaptation which is 

 not susceptible of the same explanation. Their 

 social organization, too intelligent, it seems, to 

 be the work of any reasoning powers of their 

 own, yet does not appear to be directly con- 

 nected with their structure. While we w T ere 

 w T atching our little insect, a breath stirred the 

 leaf and he instantly contracted himself and 

 drew back under his roof; but presently came 

 out again and returned to his work.' " 



Now, while the learned Professor and his 

 lady, and the w r riter of this notice, are thus 

 throwing stones at the mathematical ability of 

 our little pets, I should think Huber would 

 move in his coffin and his sightless orbs shed 

 tears of vexation ; Langstroth feel a pang not 

 caused by his disease ; and Quinby say, the 

 lady's bees may make cells in that way, but mine 

 do not, ! When you give this to your readers, 

 how many among them will believe it? The 

 tame mink man is the only one who could make 

 me receive it. [f he endorses her vh ws, I shall 

 of course have to cave. 



It is rather late in the day for the " high 

 learned " and scientfic to send forth a work 

 promulgating such views. The idea that bees, 



in comb-building " stand as close as they can 

 together," each making "his own form and size 

 the mould for the cells," must have been con- 

 cocted in the study, for it certainly could not 

 have been derived from observation. The eru- 

 dite reviewer, too, is to be congratulat d on the 

 light he has thus felicitously obtained on the 

 " mathematics of the. bee." Much "wonder," 

 unquestionably, but very little "admiration" 

 indeed, is excited, when one meets with such 

 delectable specimens of analogical reasoning, 

 the. erroneousness of which ordinary eyesight 

 well employed, without the aid of a, "lens," 

 would detect at a glance. 



B. F. Babcock. 

 Afton, Mtnn. 



[From the St. Charles (Mo.) Cosmos and Sontinel.] 



The Battle of the Bees. 



On Saturday of last w r eek a terrific apiarian 

 conflict took place at the Rev. W. II. Varde- 

 man's, in Cuivre township, in this (St. Charles) 

 county. It is not known what number of com- 

 batants w r ere engaged in the fight, but their name 

 is Legion. 



Mr. Vardeman had nine stands upon a single 

 bench or platform, and the conflict began be- 

 tween the inmates of two stands that were sep- 

 arated from each other by several intermediate 

 hives. At first only a few of each garrison 

 were engaged in the conflict, but as the fight 

 progresfed and the fray waged fast and furious, 

 not only the fighting materials of the belligerent 

 garrisons, but also that of the neighboring 

 stands, were drawn into the conflict. It is sup- 

 posed by those who witnessed the fight, that all 

 the war material of the several garrisons was 

 put in requisition, and it is even hinted that 

 several of the fair queens uusexed themselves, 

 aniby their presence gave aid and countenance 

 to tneir respective favorites. Certain it is, there 

 were but few "sympathizers" who did not take 

 part in this battle. 



The fight is represented as the most furious 

 one of the kind on record. The great captains 

 of the day deported themselves with great valor 

 and intrepidity, and carried on exterminating 

 war, until the number became so great that the 

 air was fairly blackened with the bees. The 

 fight continued for nearly two hours, until one 

 party seemed to give way and the combat slack- 

 ened. Hundreds of bees perished in the fight, 

 and hundreds of others were wounded in the 

 fray and died from their wounds afterwards. 

 It was not till the going down of the sun that 

 the cries of the wounded and the shouts of the 

 victors ceased, and order was once more restor- 

 ed. The ground in the vicinity was literally 

 covered with the w T oundcd and dying. 



The origin of the fight is unknown. Whether 

 it was some old feud, handed down from sire to 

 son, between some ancient houses of York and 

 Lancaster in the Bee Kingdom, or provoked by 

 some raiding band of bushwhackers, who de- 

 sired to appropriate the golden fruits of others' 

 labor to their own use; or whether some "ladye 

 fayre" — some Helen Apis — was in the case, is 

 not recorded. 



