THE BEE. S97 



which seldom subside until the stronger has destroyed 

 the weak, when harmony supplies the place of discord, 

 and the whole hive become subservient to the conquer- 

 ing queen. 



There are two kinds of wax, as well as two kinds of 

 honey ; the inferior is of a yellow hue, but the better 

 kind is white ; and that which is made in the spring of 

 the year is allowed to be superior to that which is formed 

 in summer, or when the flo\vers are upon the decline. 



The humble bee is the largest of this industrious spe- 

 cies, though neither so active or laborious as the race 

 we have described ; it forms its nest in different holes 

 of the earth, and is composed of wool, wax, and dry 

 leaves. The wood bee is somewhat larger than the com- 

 mon queen bee, and forms its cells in the cavities of 

 decayed trees. The mason-bee chooses its dwelling on 

 a wall that has a southern aspect, and mortar is the 

 substance which composes its cell. The ground-bee 

 forms a dwelling five or six inches deep in the earth ; 

 and the leaf-cutting bee composes its cell of dry leaves. 

 Though the general habits of these insects differ from 

 those of the hive kind, yet they seem to agree in one 

 essential, which is that of paying particular attention 

 to their young. When the queen-bee has deposited 

 her eggs in separate habitations, the working bees con- 

 sider them as objects of their care; and, the moment 

 the little worm is excluded from them, supplies them 

 with a glutinous kind of food, composed of honey and 

 wax combined together, which after five or six days 

 the young ones will refuse to eat. When these anxious 

 nurses observe that they require no farther sustenance, 

 "hey inclose them, separately, in their snug retreat, 

 when the little animal begins its labours, and spins it- 

 Self a kind of covering composed of silk; it is then 



