40 XJPLAND AND MEADOW. 



diameter but considerable depth, and here an escaped 

 swann of bees from some neighbor's garden have been 

 making honey on their own account, in blissful ignorance 

 of patent combs, imported queens, or fumes of burning 

 sulpliur. Having escaped the attentions of man, tliese 

 bees have not been allowed to go scot free nevertheless. 

 Honey is a toothsome morsel to many quadrupeds as 

 well as bipeds, and a family of flying squirrels, that live 

 in a hollow tree hard by, are constant visitors during 

 autumn, and, for aught I know, in winter, unless the 

 weather is unusually severe. 



When I found the bees' nest, in November, the squir- 

 rels had been for some time raiding upon it, and, cunning 

 creatures that they were — I had heretofore looked upon 

 them as rather stupid — they did not waste the precious 

 store of food, or publish its whereabouts by dropping 

 morsels of it, as they passed to and fro. They came and 

 went with proper circumspection, and perhaps surveyed 

 the ground about their nest- tree before each visit, to 

 see that no spy was near them. Before Christmas the 

 hive was empty, and now the foolishness of the squirrels 

 was as evident as was their cunning of a short time be- 

 fore. By too great greediness they had killed the goose 

 that laid the golden e^i^g', they had not only eaten the 

 honey, but the bees. Is it not strange that the idea does 

 not dawn upon them, to leave so much of the hive in- 

 tact as to secure a supply of honey each succeeding 

 winter? We have harvesting ants, and food-hoarding 

 mammals ; so why should not these flying squirrels, in 

 time, become more provident? Squirrels have been 

 robbing bee-hives so far back in time, that the years 



