NATURAL HISTORY OF THE HONEY-BEE. 



CHAPTER I. 



THE BEE'S PLACE IN THE ANIMAL KINGDOM. 



It is estimated by Heer and other eminent naturalists, that 

 there are more than 250,000 species of living animals. It 

 will be both interesting and profitable to look in upon this 

 vast host, that we may know the position and relationship of 

 the bee to all this mighty concourse of life. 



BRANCH OF THE HONEY-BEE. 



The great French naturalist, Cuvier, a friend of Napoleon 

 I., grouped all animals which exhibit a ring structure into one 

 branch, appropriately named Articulates, as this term indi- 

 cates the lointed or articulated structure which so obviously 

 characterizes most of the members of this group. 



The terms joint and articulation, as used here, have a tech- 

 nical meaning. They refer not only to the hinge or place of 

 union of two parts, but also to the parts themselves. Thus, 

 the parts of an insect's legs, as well as the surfaces of union, 

 are styled joints or articulations. All the apiarists who have 

 examined carefully the structure o f a bee, will at once pro- 

 nounce it an Articulate. Not only is its body, even from 

 head to sting, composed of joints, but by close inspection we 

 find the legs, the antennse, and even the mouth-parts, like- 

 wise jointed. 



In this branch we also place the Crustacea — which include 

 the rolicking cray-fish or lobster, so indifferent as to whether 

 he moves forward, backward or sidewise, the shorter crab, the 

 sow-bug, lively and plump, even in its dark, damp home under 

 old boards, and the barnacles, which fasten to the bottom of 

 ships, so that vessels are often freighted with life without as 

 well as within. 



The worms, too, are Articulates, though in some of these, 

 as the leech, the joints are very obscure. The bee, then, 



