Insects. 3197 



all the objects around, before they become well acquainted with the locality. They 

 arrive at the hives frequently dead beat with fatigue under their heavy loads ; no won- 

 der they sometimes make mistakes. The fecundation of the queen bee is certainly a 

 most wonderful thing. Pliny says, — " Apum enim coitus visus est nunquam ; '' and 

 from that time until the present no one has witnessed it. Mr. Huish repudiates the 

 testimony of the immortal Huber ; but Mr. Huish's theory is not in the least original. 

 The great Swammerdain wrote a hundred years before him, and stated that the queen 

 hive bee was fecundated by " inhaling " an " aura" from the body of the male. Hu- 

 ber is certainly strongly circumstantial in his details, and I am inclined to believe 

 him, even without direct evidence. I have often observed a species of common fly on 

 my lawn, while dancing in the air, remaining connected for about a second or two, aud 

 never fall to the ground. This may be the case with bees ; but still, at swanning- 

 time, when I have discovered a queen fallen from defective wings, with a bunch of 

 bees around her, I never discovered a drone near her on the ground, although I firmly 

 believe that the swarming-time is the " Epithalamium '' of the hive bee. I will con- 

 clude my remarks by mentioning the extraordinary and quick discrimination of bees 

 in a certain way. All idlers and disabled bees are entirely excluded from the hives ; 

 the motto of these insects being, — " He that will not work, neither shall he eat.'' I 

 have a hundred times endeavoured to introduce bees with defective wings or some 

 other malady into their own hive, but in vain ; the guards rush out, and after a brief 

 sort of court martial, one or other of them will fasten on the disabled bee and fly off 

 with him. Then again, in cold showery weather bees are frequently knocked down, 

 and lie benumbed, unable to move, but still having no bodily defect, and only wanting 

 heat to be revived. I have a hundred times placed some of these bees on the alight- 

 ing-board when quite unable to walk ; the guards come up to them, but in a second 

 after examination they discover the cause, and knowing there is no bodily defect, they 

 render the benumbed bees every assistance, putting out the proboscis, and exhibiting 

 other signs of friendship. I shall be glad if Mr. Filland will continue his " Buzz ;" 

 meantime I tell him fairly that I concur with him, and certainly go only part of the 

 way with Mr. Langstroth, who, in my opinion, goes a great deal too far. Mr. Huish 

 was too hasty, and had not patience to make these quiet experiments. — H. W. New- 

 man; New House, Stroud, March 4, 1852. 



Notes on Bees and Hives. — Whenever any account reaches us across the Atlantic 

 which seems to border on the marvellous, we are apt to regard it distrustfully, and 

 even to designate it an Americanism. I acknowledge myself to have partaken of this 

 scepticism when perusing Mr. Langstroth's paper on the culture of bees under the 

 constant admission of light. That the late Mr. Huish laboured under an erroneous 

 impression, as to the paralyzing effects of its admission, I have long been convinced, 

 having uniformly observed that the occasional access of light, though somewhat start- 

 ling to them, had only a temporary effect. But its continuous admission is, I believe, 

 opposed to the opinion and practice, not only of all apiarians of the present, but of all 

 past times, as well as to the habits of bees in their wild state. The earnestness, how- 

 ever, with which Mr. Newman has taken up the subject, will certainly lead me to be 

 more particular hereafter in my observation of the effect of exposing bees to a conti- 

 nuous light. Before I lay down my pen, I wish to say a few words upon the subject 

 to which Mr. Newman has called my attention, that of unicomb hives. From the pe- 

 riod at which Mr. Newman was first introduced to one of them, and from the profes- 

 sion of the introducer, I have little doubt of its having taken place at the residence of 

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