2672 The Zoologist— July, 1871. 



" Aristotle, in the first Book of his Natural History, numbers 

 Bees among Swa UoXiriKo. Civil People. For the Use of Life saith 

 Pliny, they Labour, Work, and Ordain a Commonwealth ; have 

 their private Councils, their warlike Actions, and which is strangest 

 of all, they have their Morals. 



"They have their Master-Bee, which assigns Tasks for the 

 whole Sivarni; some gather Thyme, and bring it home upon 

 their Thighs, of which they make their Combs ; others bring home 

 Honey in their Bellies, which they suck out of the Honey-Flowers, 

 as the Honey-Suckle, Lamh-Suckle, the Clover Flowers, but more 

 especially in June, July, and the beginning of August, when the 

 Honey-Dews fall upon the Leaves of the Oak, the Ash, the Palm 

 Trees, and likewise upon Grass and Floicers: this they suck up, 

 and fill their little Cells with Honey, and then do so wax it up, 

 that it may not melt and run out. 



*' This year 1 observed several Honey Falls in July and the 

 beginning of August, when the Ling Heath and Furz were in 

 their full Blossom; it was most discernable upon the smooth 

 Leaves of Trees. One might have seen it bright and shining. 



"They might have tasted it with their Tongues, and felt it with 

 their Fingers, to be Unctuous and Clammy. When these Honey- 

 Dews fall, the Air is always Calm, Hot and Sulphury. It fell this 

 year so thick, that it sometimes roaped down from the Leaf like 

 small Tlireads. It seems to be of the nature of that Manna which 

 fell in the Wilderness. Pliny conceits these Honey-Falls to be 

 the Sweat of Heaven, or the Spittle of the Stars, or the Moisture 

 of the Air, purging itself; but these Conceits may be reckoned 

 among the Mistakes of that great Naturalist; these Honey-Falls 

 being only the Effluvia of Sweet Flowers, and the Blossoms of 

 Ling and Heath, &c., extracted by the Summer Sun ; and when 

 contracted and digested in the warm ^/;-, it falls down in a Shower 

 of Honey-Dew, uj)on the Grass, Trees, &c. 



"The Drones, which are reproached as an Emblem of Idleness, 

 have their Task alloted them ; for when in the Wars they have 

 lost their Slings, that they cannot work*; they are kept in the 

 Hives at home for breeding ; and when their young Brood is ready 

 for Swarming; they come down from their Cells, fly abroad, and 

 do not only give notice to the Bee-Master to provide Quarters for 

 them, but seek about for a convenient place to light on, or incamp 

 in. 



