294 SIGNS OF THE RAVAGES OF THE MOUSE. 



attack and kill them for the purpose of devouring them. 

 There is scarcely any season in which the bees are secure 

 from the attacks of their enemies. In summer, they are 

 kept in a continual state of alarm and agitation by the 

 wasps, moths, ants, and earwigs; and in winter, they are 

 subject to the destructive visitations of the mouse, who 

 prefers the warmth of a hive, and good cheer before him, to 

 his cold domicile in the ground, and to a precarious sub- 

 sistence obtained by personal exertion and robbery. The 

 depredations of the common and the field mouse may be 

 always prevented by the provident bee-master, by so con- 

 tracting the entrance of his hive at the commencement of 

 the winter, that only a single bee can come out at a time. 

 We have, however, experienced, that this precaution does not 

 always succeed ; for the cunning animals, finding their in- 

 gress into the hive prevented, where they expected to find it, 

 have proceeded to gnaw away a portion of the lower band 

 of the hive, and thereby steal into the hive, as they suppose 

 unperceived ; but the vigilant bee-master, on taking the 

 periodical survey of his apiary, will soon discover the secret 

 inroad of the animal, if he observe on the ground a number 

 of nibbled straws, which will be an indication to him that 

 some evil has been committed to his hive, and the cause of 

 it will soon present itself. As, however, in all cases, a pre- 

 ventive is better than a remedy, so it is with the inroads and 

 attacks of the enemies of the bees ; for in the majority of 

 cases, it is within the power of the bee-master to adopt those 

 measures, by which he may bid defiance to all the enemies 

 of the bees, with the exception of those, who obtain admit- 

 tance into the hive by their wings. It is the careless and 

 injudicious manner in which the hives are generally placed, 

 that exposes them to the attack of their enemies; and in 

 some instances, it has come under our observation, that the 

 proprietors of hives, so far from adopting any precautionary 

 measures, have, literally, liberally supplied the enemies of 



