Bee-keeping, by " The Times' " Bee Master. 283 



hexagon " \ ! ! To its assumed liexagonal shape lie ascribes its 

 superiority, stating, at page 129, " it seems tlie bees, who 

 construct their cells in the form of hexagons, prefer the house 

 in which they work to be very much of the same shape." 

 The fallacy of this argument is evident from the fact that the 

 hive is in reality eight sided; and the want of honest truthful- 

 ness in the writer is no less evident at page 158, where he 

 insinuates that the mistake arose from a misprint, whereas his 

 argument is founded on the assumed hexagonal form, and 

 therefore the statement could not possibly have been a typo- 

 graphical error. The mode in which he directs these hives 

 to be used is quite opposed to their profitable employment, and 

 could not furnish good results. This was made quite evident 

 by a top box of honey which the Bee Master exhibited in Mr. 

 Neighbour's window in Holborn, the comb being of a very 

 dark colour and of inferior quality. 



Of the statements made respecting the natural history 

 and habits of the bee, we need not say more than that the 

 Times' letters were some time since brought under the notice 

 of the members of the Entomological Society by Mr. Teget- 

 meier, when they were received with derisive laughter; and 

 Professor Westwood, of the University of Oxford, who is alike 

 a profound scientific entomologist, and a skilled practical 

 apiarian, denounced the letters as alike arrogant and worth- 

 less. 



Perhaps the most objectionable part of the book is the 

 bad feeling that it displays towards animals that do not happen 

 to meet with the approbation of the writer. Thus he tells us, 

 page 160, that wasps " use their stings, not like bees, in self- 

 defence, but in sheer wickedness/' a statement alike false in fact 

 and inference. As a result of this opinion we are told that the 

 destruction of the whole clan becomes " a sacred duty." Of 

 the hornet, we are told that " of all ugly things on earth, 

 next to the serpent, he is the ugliest, the most thievish, and 

 the most dishonest ; he is a wicked imp, a thief from his birth, 

 feeding on corruption and full of wickedness.'" So ignorant 

 is he of the natural history of the most common animals, 

 that he tells us that wasps have " no queen, no subordination, 

 that they are red republicans — Marats and Eobespierres — and 

 richly deserve the worst they get." 



Of the toad he writes, he ' ' is a lazy, ugly -looking enemy 

 of the bee. His capabilities, however, are not equal to his 

 will and wants. He squats under the bee-landing board, and 

 seizes every too heavily laden or wing-weary labourer that 

 accidentally drops. This is -really very cruel. The bee that 

 has finished the longest journey, and gone through the 

 hardest work, and borne the heat and brunt of the hot, long 



