208 ENEMIES OF BEES. 



treasure to its usual asylum, and that even after 

 repeated robberies. MR. HUBBARD says that he 

 has known repeated instances of weak stocks 

 being expelled from their hives by strong ones. 

 The best remedies for this evil are the contraction 

 of the entrances, as for guarding against wasps, or 

 a change in the situation of the hives. 



DR. DARWIN in his Phytologia has related an 

 instance of a besieged hive being removed to a 

 distant and more easterly part of the same garden : 

 the assailants in this case did not follow, and the 

 bees resumed their usual occupations. Removal 

 to a still greater distance would seem to promise 

 more certain relief. In order to raise their cou- 

 rage above its natural height when thus attacked, 

 SCHIRACH recommends mixing a little wine or 

 brandy with honey, and presenting it to the bees 

 that are besieged. 



HUBER has called the attention of Naturalists 

 to what he designated as a new enemy of bees, the 

 Sphinx Atropos or Death's-head Hawk-moth, to 

 which his attention seems to have been first di- 

 rected in 1804. This gigantic moth, which de- 

 rives its name from having upon its back a mark 

 somewhat resembling a death's head, has, from 

 this cause together with its size, (which at first 

 caused it to be mistaken for a bat,) produced 

 great alarm amongst the people of some countries, 

 being regarded by them as the harbinger of some 



