854 INSECTA — BEE. 



torn of the hive, which is generally dark and concealed ; he witnessed a real 

 and furious massacre of the males, the workers thrusting their stings so 

 deep into the bodies of the defenceless drones, that they were obliged to 

 turn on themselves as on a pivot, before they could extricate them. The 

 work of death commenced in all the hives much about the same time. It is 

 not, however, by a blind or indiscriminating instinct that the Avorkers are 

 impelled thus to sacrifice the males ; for if a hive be deprived of its queen, 

 no such massacre takes place in it, but the males are allowed to survive the 

 winter. 



A farm, or a country, may be overstocked with bees, as with any sort of 

 animal ; for a certain number of hives always require a certain number of 

 flowers to subsist on. When the flowers near home are rifled, then are 

 these industrious insects seen taking more extensive ranges, but their abili- 

 ties may be overtaxed ; and if they are obliged, in quest of honey, to go too 

 far from home, they are overwearied in the pursuit, they are devoured by 

 birds, or beaten down by the winds and rain. 



From a knowledge of this, in some parts of France and Piedmont, they 

 have contrived a kind of floating bee-house. They have on board one barge 

 threescore or a hundred bee-hives, well defended from the inclemency of an 

 accidental storm ; and with these, the OAvners suffer themselves to float 

 gently down the river. As the bees are continually choosing their flowery 

 pasture along the banks of the stream, they are furnished with sweets before 

 unrifled ; and thus a single floating bee-house yields the proprietor a consi- 

 derable income. 



The bees are nearly alike in all parts of the world, yet there are diffe- 

 rences worthy our notice. In Guadaloupe, the bee is less by one half than the 

 European, and more black and round. They have no sting, and make their 

 cells in hollow trees, where, if the hole they meet with is too large, they 

 form a sort of waxen house, of the shape of a pear, and in this they lodge 

 and store their honey, and lay their eggs. They lay up their honey in 

 waxen vessels of the size of a pigeon's egg, of a black or deep violet co- 

 lor ; and these are so joined together, that there is no space left between 

 them. 



The honey never congeals, but is fluid, of the consistence of oil, and the 

 color of amber. Resembling these, there are found little black bees, without 

 a sting, in all the tropical climates ; and though these countries are replete 

 with bees, like our own, yet those form the most useful and laborious tribe 

 in that part of the world. The honey they produce is neither so unpalata- 

 ble, nor so surfeiting as ours ; and the wax is so soft, that it is only used 

 for medicinal purposes, it being never found hard enough to form into can- 

 dles, as in Europe. 



Of insects that receive the name of bees, among us, there are several ; 

 which however differ very widely from that industrious social race we have 



