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KIDD'S OWN JOURNAL. 



comrades, who have been engaged at home, what 

 nutriment they require, and stores np the rest for 

 after use. It then rests for a few minutes, and 

 again departs on its food-collecting errand. In 

 like manner it arrives into being, perfectly able to 

 perform all its other instinctive actions without 

 requiring the slightest education ! 



Perhaps not among the least surprising of these, 

 are the contrivances of the bees for ventilating the 

 hive. A bee-hive, as may easily be fancied, is apt 

 to get both heated and corrupted by foul air. In 

 order to obtain a supply of fresh and pure air, a 

 number of the workers, often about twenty, station 

 themselves in a file upon the floor. They hold 

 very firm to the ground; and " by means of their 

 marginal hooks, unite each pair of wings into one 

 plane, slightly concave — thus acting upon the air 

 by a surface nearly as large as possible, and forming 

 for them a pair of very ample fans, which in their 

 vibrations describe an angle of 60°." They 

 vibrate these fans with such rapidity, that the 

 wings are scarcely visible. By this operation, a 

 very perceptible current of air is driven into the 

 hive, which of course displaces the corrupt air. 



The warlike undertakings of bees are amusing. 

 Dreadful deeds are sometimes to be witnessed in a 

 hive ; and probably depend upon one of the workers 

 having become old, and not so active as before, 

 and another one trying to kill him. These en- 

 counters occasionally end in the death of both 

 combatants ; sometimes one slays the other, and 

 sometimes, after fighting for an hour or more, they 

 give up by mutual consent. Occasionally, general 

 battles take place between the occupants of two 

 hives. A hive may attempt to plunder the honey 

 of another; and when this is the case, the bees 

 composing it at first act with caution, and a few 

 of them linger about the door of the hive intended 

 to be pillaged. After a little, the whole robbers 

 come in a body, and a fearful battle ensues. If 

 the invaders can succeed in killing the queen, the 

 attacked join with them, assist in plundering 

 their former house, and then depart home with the 

 robbers. 



Occasionally four or five bees unite together, 

 and attack either a straggling hive bee or a 

 humble bee. Their object is merely to rob him 

 of his honey. They hold him by the legs and 

 pinch him until he unfolds his tongue ; which is 

 sucked in succession by his assailants, who then 

 suffer him to depart in peace. 



On the other hand, bees are themselves exposed 

 to many assailants. The common wasp often 

 attacks their hives on a pilfering expedition, and, 

 owing to his size and courage, is a formidable 

 thief: one wasp being able to fight three bees. 

 On some occasions, the wasps drive the bees out 

 bodily, take possession of their hive, and, of 

 course, eat all their honey. A still more formi- 

 dable opponent is found in the larvae of Tinea 

 mellonella, and other species of moths, who spend 

 the early part of their lives in the hives, where 

 they consume large quantities of food. They spin 

 a silken tube around them, through which the 

 stiugs of the bees cannot penetrate. The bees, 

 however, take great pains to keep the moths out 

 of their hives, and thus prevent the possibility of 

 their laying eggs in them. 



They put sentinels at night, who, on the ap- 

 proach of the moth, utter a low hum which brings 



assistance, and the moth is stung to death. The 

 death-hawk moth, which is almost as large as a 

 common bat, sometimes makes its way into hives, 

 where it commits great havoc. To defend them- 

 selves against it, the bees barricade the entrance 

 of their hives with a strong wall made of wax and 

 propolis. The wall is built behind the gateway, 

 which it completely stops up, and is only pierced 

 with a hole that will admit one or two workers. 

 This erection is only put up in extreme emergen- 

 cies, but is a striking example of an instinct. 



Is not all this truly wonderful ? Let us 

 express the earnest hope, that our younger 

 readers in particular will make these matters 

 a pleasing subject of study. The delight 

 derivable from such studies, is really in- 

 appreciable. 



MY FSISND "JACE!" 



OR 

 THE LIFE OF A TAME SQUIRREL. 



One fine afternoon at the end of 

 September, we were engaged in picking up 

 walnuts under a fine tree wdiich grew on our 

 lawn ; when my brother saw a line young 

 squirrel seated on a branch over his head, 

 busily engaged in eating and shelling the 

 nuts. We immediately picked up some 

 horse-chesnuts, intending to pelt him aAvay; 

 and threw several at him. But he took no 

 other notice of our efforts to dislodge him, 

 than chattering and stamping at a furious 

 rate. At last, my brother threw one with 

 such good aim, that it struck him on his head 

 between 'his eyes, and brought him down 

 rather quicker than he went up. On taking 

 him up and finding he was only stunned 

 (though, from the force of the blow, one 

 would have supposed he would have been 

 killed outright), we immediately conveyed him 

 in doors, and bathed his head with water ; 

 hoping we should succeed in restoring him 

 to his senses. 



After a quarter of an hour's careful 

 attention, the poor little fellow began 

 to show some signs of life ; and in a few 

 minutes made some attempts to bite. On this, 

 w T e thought it highly necessary to put him 

 into confinement ; lest, by biting the fingers 

 of his captors, he should make his escape. 

 Accordingly, a box was procured ; in the lid 

 of which, some holes (of the diameter of half 

 an inch) were bored ; and " Mr. Jack," as he 

 was at once named, was safely deposited there- 

 in, together with sufficient hay to make a com- 

 fortable bed. In the evening, we put some 

 nuts and walnuts into his box, to give him 

 the chance of a supper, if he were so dis- 

 posed ; but after such a "topper," as our 

 gardener called it, his appetite seemed to be 

 ''nowhere." 



In the morning, all were down very early 

 to see how the "invalid" was; and on 



