NATURAL HISTORY OF THE HONEY BEE. 65 



dicate that its season of toil will soon be over. They appear 

 to file rather suddenly, and often spend their last days, and 

 sometimes even their last hours, in useful labors. Place 

 yourself before a hive, and see the indefatigable energy of 

 these industrious veterans, toiling along with their heavy 

 burdens, side by side with their more youthful compeers, 

 and then say if you can, that you have done work enough, 

 and that you will' surrender yourself to slothful indulgence, 

 while the ability for useful labor still remains. Let the 

 cheerful hum of their busy old age inspire you with better 

 resolutions, and teach you how much nobler it is to meet 

 death in the path of duly, striving still, as you " have oppor- 

 tunity," to " do good unto all men." 



The age which individual members of the community 

 may attain, must not be confounded with that of the colony. 

 Bees have been known to occupy the same domicile for a 

 great number of years. I have seen flourishing colonies 

 which were twenty years old ; the Abbe Delia Rocca speaks 

 of some over forty years old ; and Stoche says, that he saw 

 a colony, which he was assured had subsisted forty-six 

 years, swarming annually once ! Such cases have led to 

 the erroneous opinion that bees are a long-lived race. But 

 this, as Dr Evans has observed, is just as wise as if a stran- 

 ger, contemplating a populous city, and personally unac- 

 quainted with its inhabitants, should on paying it a second 

 visit, many years a.fter, and finding it equally populous, im- 

 agine that it was peopled by the same individuals, not one of 

 whom might then be living. 



" Like leaves on trees, the race of bees is found, 

 Now green in youth, now withering on the ground ; 

 Another race the Spring or Fall supplies. 

 They droop successive, and successive rise." 



The cocoons spun by the larvse, are never removed by 

 6* 



