ll-KEDING. 



277 



necessity of preventing his bees getting a taste of for- 

 bidden sweets, and the inexperienced, if incautious, will 

 50on leai-n a salutary lesson. Bees were intended lo 

 "-ather their supplies from the nectaries of flowers, and, 

 while following their natural instincts', have little disposi- 

 tion to meddle with property that does not belong to 

 them ; but, if theii- incautious owner tempts them with 

 liquid food, especially at times when they can obtain no- 

 thing from the blossoms, they become so infatuated with 

 such easy gatherings as to los? all discretion, and will 

 perish by thousands if the vessels which contain the food 

 are not furnished with floats, on which they can safely 

 stand to help themselves. 



As the fly'was not intended to banquet on blossoms, 

 but on substances in which it might easily be drowned, 

 it cautiously alights on the edge of any vessel containing 

 liquid food, and warily helps itself; while the poor bee, 

 plunging in headlong, speedily perishes. The sad fate of 

 their unfortunate companions does not in the least deter 

 others who approach the tempting lure, from madly alight- 

 ing on the bodies of the dying and the dead, to share the 

 same miserable end ! No one can i\nderstand the extent 

 of their infatuation, nntil he has seen a confectioner's shop 

 assailed by myriads of hungry bees. I have seen thou- 

 sands strained out from the syrups in which they had 

 perished ; thousands more alighting even upon the boiling 

 swfeets ; the floors covered and windows darkened with 

 bees, some cTawling, others flying, and others still, so 

 completely besmeared as to be able neither to crawl nor 

 fly — ^not one in ten able to carry home its ill-gotten spoils, 

 and yet the air flUed with new hosts of thoughtless 

 comers. 



I once famished a candyTshop, in the vicinity of my 

 Apiary, with guaze-wire windows and doors, after the 



