The Life of the Bee 



Nor is this book to be a scientific 

 monograph on Apis Mellifica, Ligustica, 

 Fasciata, Dorsata, etc., or a collection of 

 new observations and studies. I shall 

 say scarcely anything that those will not 

 know who are somewhat familiar with 

 bees. The notes and experiments I have 

 made during my twenty years of bee- 

 keeping I shall reserve for a more techni- 

 cal work; for their interest is necessarily 

 of a special and limited nature, and I 

 am anxious not to over-burden this 

 essay. I wish to speak of the bees very 

 simply, as one speaks of a subject one 

 knows and loves to those who know 

 it not. I do not intend to adorn the 

 truth, or merit the just reproach Reaumur 

 addressed to his predecessors in the study 

 of our honey-flies, whom he accused of 

 substituting for the marvellous reality 

 marvels that were imaginary and merely 

 plausible. The fact that the hive con- 

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