The Preface to the Reader. 
beauty, fo excellent for Art and wifdome, & Co full of plea- 
fure and profit* that the contemplation thereof may well 
befeeme an ingenious nature. And therefore (not without 
Var.ly.. caufe) are the Bees called the Mufes Birds : Apes cum cattfa 
1 Mu f arum effe dtcuntur <volucres. 
Theloue of which did forauifb Ariflomachus and Phi - 
ll l *'9' lifass ,that, as Plinie reporteth, they were pleafed to fpend 
mott-oftheir time in this pleafing bufinefle. Ne quis ( faith 
he) miretur amove ear urn c apt os Arifiomachum Solenfem duo • 
defexagtnta amis nihil aliudegi(J'e\ Philifcurn'vero Tbajium in 
defer t is apes colente.n Agrium cognominatum : qui amho fcrip- 
fere de his. Ariftotle thought his Hifloua ammalium vnper- 
fe&, vnldFehehadinferteda Trail: of the Mature of Bees: 
of which he difcourfech more 3t large, rhan he doth of any 
other lining creature.P/wVlikewife, in his Naturalishi]loria y 
is very copious in this argument. Befides whom, diuers 
other haue written thereof : as Columella, parro, Palladium, 
Averroes. Yea the learned 6c graue Fathers of the Church, 
S.Ambrofe, and lldorc haue thought it afubieil He for their 
penns. Vn to which I may adde infinite others ofiater times, 
both in La tine and Englifh. 
But the many yeeres experiments &obferu3tions, which J 
th^fe great Bee- matters Arijiom. and Philifcm had leaft in 
writing to potteriry * Time, ah injurious Time, hath buried 
in obliuion. And for the reft, that are extant, they feeme. | 
vnto me to rely more vpofi the relation of others, than any 
certaine knowledge of their owns. Notwitbftandirag there ' 
are fcattered in them, fpecially in Ariftotle 6c P-linie , among 
many falfe and friuolous conceits , foroe true and proHta- j 
ble notes : which being found agreeable to experience, I I 
haue here and therein tbisTreatife, as the matter reqai- f 
retb, for ornament and authorise mferted. But the ia- i 
ter Writers , imitating the ancient where they thought t 
good, chitting fome of their directions , and refufing o- 
thers, if 
