286 BEES AND BEE-KEEPING. 



honey, which is of a blackish color, the bee itself 

 resembling an ox-fly. You can form your own es- 

 timate of these descriptions. 



The Chinese are fully aware that the bees only 

 live in swarms, and they say that they go out of the 

 hive twice a day, similar to the rise and fall of the 

 tide. They say the females have forked tails, but the 

 males have not, and that whenever a bee gathers 

 honey, it enwraps the flower with its thighs. The 

 Chinese are aware that each swarm is governed by 

 one royal head, which is larger than the others : but 

 they make the egregious blunder in holding that 

 this royal head is a king, belonging to the male 

 gender, instead of being a female, a queen. 



In the cold regions of the north of China, the hives 

 are said to be protected in the winter by putting 

 them into holes dug in the ground, and the bees are 

 sustained by introducing quantities of prepared syrup. 

 There is one particular which I must not omit to 

 mention, although you will find it, like myself, hard 

 to believe, but it seems to be a pretty well authenti- 

 cated fact, to wit : In some places north, when they 

 are preparing the hives ready for depositing them in 

 the ground, for the winter, there is introduced into 

 each hive a whole dried chicken, and on opening the 

 hives in the spring, nothing is found but the cleanly 

 picked bones of the fowl. This may seem incredible, 

 because feeding on dead flesh being so contrary to 

 the supposed habits of the honey bee; but you will 

 remember that in the instance of the beautiful riddle 

 of Samson, a swarm of bees were found actively at 



