532 



GLEANINGS IN BEE CULTURE. 



July 15. 



a wide field for investigation and experiment. 

 I have spent many nights in field and forest, 

 in the haunts of the owl, fox, etc., and I have 

 hecome convinced that many animals can see 

 perfectly only in total darkness. Carefully 

 dissect and examine with microscope the eye 

 of the owl, which sees best in the dark, from 

 sclerotic coat and cornea to optic nerve, and 

 then compare this with the eye of the com- 

 mon hen, which can scarcely see to walk 

 straight after four o'clock on short days. 

 Then compare these with the eye of the eagle 

 or the hawk, which can look at the full blaze 

 of the midsummer sun without blinking, and 

 you will be convinced, I think, that the eye 

 of the owl was designed for use in a different 

 element than the eye of the eagle, hawk, and 

 hen. 



Mr. Whitney further says: "Why, bees 

 ought to do their best honey-gathering during 

 the darkest nights." I think not. I do not 

 believe bees can see at long range in the 

 night ; and from some observations made I 

 doubt if animals that see in the dark can dis- 

 tinguish colors. If this is so then the bees 

 would be placed at a disadvantage in selecting 

 blossoms from which to procure the nectar. 

 Then, too, bees, like animated nature in gen- 

 eral, must have a time for rest. 



The king-bird a real pest in The apiary. 



Mr. W. H. Seely, on page 436, says: "On 

 page 354, A. J. Wright makes a common but 

 most unjustifiable attack on the king-bird as 

 an enemy and destroyer of honey-bees." I 

 can readily forgive Mr. Seely, as, from his 

 own confession, he knows but little about 

 honey-bees, as he does not own one and never 

 did ; and it is equally plain that he knows but 

 little about the king-bird, having taken his 

 ideas on the subject from a report of the Sec- 

 retary of Agriculture. 



Now let me investigate this report. Not 

 having the report, we must rely on Mr. Seely's 

 statement. Six months were covered in col- 

 lecting the stomachs of 171 innocent king- 

 birds in nineteen States, Canada, and the Dis- 

 trict of Columbia. Only 14 stomachs con- 

 tained any traces of the honey-bee, and a total 

 of only fifty bees were found. Of these, 40 

 were drones and only 4 were workers. In 

 many instances birds were shot near bee-hives, 

 but no trace of bees was found in their 

 stomachs ; hence the conclusion that the king 

 bird is not an enemy of the honey-bee, which 

 every experienced apiarist knows to be wrong. 



Well, let us lay this report and the special- 

 ists of the department on the shelf for a time, 

 while we spend a few moments in the apiary 

 with our shotgun. It is quite early in the 

 morning, and no drones are flying, so we are 

 quire sure that, if any bees are caught, it must 

 be the workers. Here comes a king - bird 

 right among the bees, and, there ! he has 

 caught one (for convenience' sake I assume 

 this to be a male, Mr. Editor), and has retired 

 to his perch on the barn roof. Shall we shoot ? 

 No, not yet. There he goes after another. 

 So we wait until he has captured six, which is 

 certainly enough to convict him. Getting 

 within range, bang goes the gun, and tum- 



bling to the earth comes this "innocent" 

 sacrifice to the cause of science — how innocent 

 we shall soon know. Picking up the bird, 

 and finding him dead, we open the mouth, 

 expecting to find the last bee captured still 

 sticking in his throat ; but, finding none, we 

 open with a penknife the throat from mouth 

 to first stomach. No bees ! We open this 

 stomach. Empty ! We extend our explora- 

 tions to the second stomach, and finally 

 throughout the entire anatomy of the bird, 

 and fail to find even a trace of bees. Ah ' Mr. 

 Seely is right. The report is right, and Wright 

 is wrong. Just one moment, gentlemen. I 

 should like to ask one question : What was 

 that king-bird doing among the bees? Oh, 

 yes! "Just looking for drones," you say. 

 Certainly, that is plain enough ; and, not 

 finding any, he went without his breakfast — 

 nice bird ! 



I am anxious to know if this nice little 

 birdie does really catch drones ; so we will be 

 on hand about two o'clock, and see if we can 

 find out. Well, here we are, with the air fairly 

 roaring with lazy drones and busy workers, 

 and here are two king-birds ready for business, 

 one on the barn roof and the other in the air, 

 moving further down the line. We will select 

 the one on the roof. Now he starts in among 

 the bees, and there can be no mistake — a cap- 

 ture is made; but whether a drone or a worker 

 can not be determined. Soon another capture 

 is apparently made, and the same thing is 

 repeated for perhaps twenty minutes, during 

 which time I should say that ten or more bees 

 had been caught. 



Our " artillery " being now brought to bear, 

 this victim of man's thirst for knowledge lies 

 dead at our feet. The knife is again used, 

 with the result that we find in the first stomach 

 one drone and nothing else. In the second 

 stomach, fragments of insects, but nothing 

 that could be classified. Here is a mystery, 

 surely — a dozen or more bees caught, and only 

 one to be found. The report referred to above 

 is all right, and probably correct, so far as the 

 number of bees found is concerned. In fact, 

 Mr. Editor, you may shoot king-birds all day, 

 and the chances are " 16 to 1 " that you won't 

 find a worker, and rarely a drone, in the 

 stomachs of the entire lot. 



What, then, has become of the bees captur- 

 ed ? A king-bird that has been boarding with 

 me for a few days, and taking his meals from 

 my apiary, has "given the whole business 

 away." This bird seizes a worker, which he 

 much prefers to a drone, by the abdomen, 

 giving the bee a few smart raps against the 

 perch. He then passes the body of the bee 

 its entire length transversely between his upper 

 and lower mandibles, by a peculiar motion of 

 the latter. This is continued until the juices 

 are thoroughly extracted, when he opens his 

 mouth and drops the useless carcass to the 

 ground. No wonder, then, that we failed to 

 find workers in the stomach. But how about 

 the drones? Well, when a drone is seized he 

 is swallowed at once ; and when several have 

 been taken into the first stomach the bird sits 

 quietly on the perch for half an hour, some- 

 times longer, when, by a few motions of the 



