854 INSECTA—BEE. 
tom 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 sametime. Itis 
not, however, ‘by a blind or indiscriminating instinct that the workers 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 owners 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 ournotice. 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 ofamber. 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- 
dle, 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 
