Live Stock. 



362 



[October, 1908. 



SOME SOUNDS OF THE REE. 



The following interesting little article, 

 from the pen of a former reader of and 

 contributor to, the pages of the B. B. J., 

 appears in the current issue of, the 

 South African Poultry Journal, just 

 received : — 



"To distinguish all the sounds of the 

 bees would require a sense of hearing 

 keener than that possessed by human 

 ears, but even the dullest ear, after long 

 listening, becomes familiar with many 

 bee-notes, and finds meaning in what to 

 the novice is nothing but a bewildering 

 confusion of sound. 



"In practical bee-keeping there is 

 nothing the beginner will find of greater 

 service than to learn to interpret these 

 various sounds from the everyday happy 

 hum of the bees in the flowers, varying 

 as it does in intensity and eagerness, 

 but expressive always of satisfaction 

 and delight, to the strange peep-peep of 

 a princess in her, as yet, unopened cell. 



"When the weather is warm and 

 honey plentiful each bee leaves the hive 

 with a flourish 'Whizz, I am off' ! excla- 

 mation ; or is it a hymn of gratitude for 

 a new day and its sunshine ? 



"The nooday play-spell is a living 

 song of gladness — an ariel dance in which 

 the young bees join and learn the joys 

 of flight — a thorough ventilation and 

 refreshment of the hive, but often a 

 source of consternation and alarm to 

 the beginner in bee-keeping, for he is 

 sure that in all this uproar his bees are 

 swarming or robbing or doing something 

 dreadful, until he discovers it is only 

 play and that each hive repeats this 

 performance at the same time every 

 day. To the uninitiated the noise is 

 suggestive of swarming, and he watches 

 with some concern until the bees have 

 - gone back and the usual quiet is 

 restored. 



"One of the most interesting sounds 

 is the ' call of the queen ' or the ' call of 

 the home '—the sound that when a swarm 

 is being hived leads them up the entrance 

 in such unerring lines. 



"All these are sounds that one is glad 

 to hear, but there are unpleasant sounds 

 as well— the sound of the robber, the 

 high angry note of an enraged bee, the 

 bee that has a grudge against you aud is 

 determined instantly to pay it off. A 

 bee ' calls out' when it is being captured 

 or crushed aud a queen when she is 

 frightened. Bees annoyed by ants call 

 in distress and spit at their tiny tormen- 

 tors, like defiant kittens. The wail of a 

 queenless colony is easily known, and 



utterly sad, though most pathetic and 

 pitiful of all is the sound of bees that 

 have lost themselves in the rain or 

 darkness." 



(The writer of the above, Miss Mary 

 Ritchie, is now science mistress at a 

 college in South Africa, and will be 

 remembered as an esteemed contributor 

 to our pages a year or two ago.— Eds.) 

 —British Bee Journal. No. 1289. Vol. 

 XXXV., March 1907. 



FISH-INSECTS. 



Fish-insects are too well known to 

 Anglo-Indians to need description. We 

 all have seen the flat, scaly, shining 

 creature, over an inch in length, which 

 is found lurking among papers that 

 have lain undisturbed in some out-of-the- 

 way place. We have remarked its fish- 

 like shape and noticed its three long 

 caudal stylets. 



Fish-insects belong to that primitive 

 order of the hexapoda called Thysanura. 

 These creatures have no wings, but 

 many of them can run with great rapi- 

 dity. Their life history is simple. They 

 undergo no metamorphosis. They pass 

 through no larval stage. The young 

 ones are miniatures of their parents. 

 The other Thysanura is divided into 

 two sub-orders, popularly known as the 

 spring-tails and the bristle-tails. Fish- 

 insects belong to the latter sub-order 

 and to the family Lepismatidse. 



Fish-insects are not by any means con- 

 fined to India. They appear to be found 

 all the world over. As long ago as 1665, 

 R. Rooke, a Fellow of the Royal Society, 

 gave a graphic account of the creature. 

 He describes it as "small, white, silver 

 shining worm or moth, which I found 

 much conversant among books and 

 papers, and is supposed to be that which 

 corrodes and eats through the leaves and 

 covers. Its head appears big and blunt, 

 and its body tapers from it towards the 

 tail, smaller and smaller, being shaped 



almost like a carrot... It has two 



long horns, before, which are straight, 

 and tapering towards the top, curiously 

 ring'd or knobb'd and bristled much like 



the marsh weed called horse's tail 



the hinder part terminated in three 

 tails, in every particular resembling the 

 two longer horns that grow out of the 

 head. The legs are scal'd and hair'd." 

 Everybody knows how rapidly books, 

 papers and photographs deteriorate in 

 this country unless they receive constant 

 attention. Anglo-Indians, with one 

 accord, blame the fish-insects for thi 

 damage. It is true that no one has eve 



