DEATH S HEAD SPHINX. 35 



' poisoned weapons with which they wound their 

 enemies. The fate of war would be more in theft 

 favour, were not several of their antagonists armed 

 still better than themselves, if others had not the 

 art of shunning their vigilance by sheltering them- 

 selves under a covering, and were there not also 

 some which can profit, by the weakness of an ill- 

 peopled hive, to gain a surreptitious introduction 

 into it. 



" Wasps, hornets, the larvae of moths and mice, 

 have been known from all antiquity by their ravages 

 among hives ; and having nothing to add to M'hat is 

 generally said respecting them, I shall confine myself 

 to pointing out a new enemy of bees. 



" Towards the close of summer, after having 

 stored up part of their collections, we sometimes 

 hear a surprising noise in their habitations. A 

 multitude of workers depart through the night, and 

 lose themselves in the air ; the tumult frequently 

 continues during several hours, and on examining 

 into the consequences of so great an agitation in the 

 morning, we find numbers dead before the hive. For 

 the most part, the honey is observed to be exhausted, 

 and occasionally the hive is quite deserted. 



" In the year 1804, many of my neighbouring 

 cultivators came to consult me on an occurrence of 

 this nature. But I could give them no explanations ; 

 notwithstanding my long practice in studying bees, 

 I never had seen any thing similar. 



" On visiting the scene, I found the phenomenon 

 still subsisting, and that it had been veiy accurately 



