348 NATURE OF THE EXCREMENT OF BEES. 



he stationed himself in the immediate proximity of his 

 hives during one of the periodical flights of his bees, he 

 would have seen in numerous instances the faeces pendent 

 to the extremity of the abdomen of the bee, showing itself 

 in a long viscous thread, which the bee appears unable to 

 detach from its body ; and further, on watching the bees 

 alight on the pedestal of their hive, he would have witnessed 

 the excrement in numerous instances falling from their 

 abdomen in the shape of small linseed, and varying in colour 

 from a muddy yellow to almost a dark brown *. 



Ducouedic, however, not satisfied with one error, which 

 he had promulgated, appeared determined to outdo himself 

 by the dissemination of a still greater; for he says the 

 drone, who has no sting for its defence, never voids any 

 excrement. The new food which it imbibes is converted 

 into wax in its second stomach, and is disgorged by the 

 mouth. The opening which is observed in its posterior ex- 

 tremity is nothing more than the orifice of the sheath of the 

 organ proper for the fecundation of the eggs of the queen ; 

 even the queen herself never emits any excrement. The 

 orifice of the organ which is perceived at her posterior extre- 

 mity, is merely for the purpose of the deposition of her eggs. 



It would be scarcely possible to select a passage in the 

 writings of any naturalist, with the exception of Huber, in 

 which a greater number of errors are to be found than 

 in the one preceding. It is agreeable to every-day ex- 

 perience that the drone voids his excrement the same as the 

 common bees, and this act is performed during the time 



* The mother of the present duke of St. Alban's was very partial to the 

 culture of the bee, and she possessed a small apiary at Gatton near Reigate. 

 It was during one of our visits to that place, that whilst we were standing 

 with her grace before the hives, the bees took one of their wintry excur- 

 sions, emitting their feces, as they circled around us ; when in a very short 

 time an elegant velvet dress, which her grace wore at the time, was so studded 

 and denied by the excrement of the insects, as to be totally spoiled, arising 

 from the gluey viscous nature of the feces, which could not be wiped orT, 

 without leaving a great stain behind it. 



