A BEAR ROBBING A BEE HIVE. 



In the history of the bear, the reader will recollect, it 

 was stated that this animal is extravagantly fond of honey. 

 In the engraving at the bottom of the thirty-sixth plate, we 

 have evidence of Bruin's love for honey. He is here 

 caught in the very act of robbing a bee hive. He has suc- 

 ceeded in turning the old fashioned straw hive upside 

 down. From the appearance of the bees about his mouth, 

 it is evident he will have a hot time of it. He will need 

 one hand to hold the hive, and the other to repel the bees 

 who are bent upon resisting his depredations. He appears 

 rather reluctant to put his nose into the hive to get the ho- 

 ney. He fears a wrap upon it, and a dab in the eye. If 

 the whole colony get roused, the thief and the robber will 

 be compelled to retreat. 



It is proper, perhaps, that the history of the honey bee, 

 this curious and industrious little animal, should be given 

 in this place. 



THE domestic bee differs in a variety of particulars from 

 most other animals, and admits a threefold description, un- 

 der its various characters of queen bee, drone bee, and work- 

 ing bee ; for though this last kind is, strictly speaking, the 

 only honey bee, yet as all the three kinds are found, and 

 seem to be necessary, in every community or hive of bees, 

 they go under the same general name of apis mellifica, 

 while at the same time they differ so much from each oth- 

 er, (more indeed than some different species of the same 

 genus of other animals,) that a particular and separate de- 

 scription of each is necessary. The drones may easily be 

 distinguished from the common or working bees. They 

 are both larger and longer in the body. Their heads are 



