130 Mr. Hunter's Observations on Bees. 
of them, and because they are an offensive and irritable 
animal, their actions are rendered very obscure, and can only 
be observed by little starts ; often we can only see the effects, 
which renders the knowledge of their oeconomy still imper- 
fect ; they would in many cases seem to evade our wishes ; 
they often remove out of our sight part of their oeconomy, 
when they can. Thus they often remove their eggs and 
young. Many quadrupeds do this, as cats, &c. and I have rea- 
son to believe, that birds can remove their eggs, at least I have 
reason to suspect the sparrow of this. 
As the bee is an insect, it has most things peculiar to that 
class of animals: such as are common are not to be taken 
notice of in the history of this insect, but only its peculiari- 
ties which distinguish it from all others, and constitute it 
to be a bee ; and as bees form a large tribe of insects, it is 
the more singular peculiarities that constitute a distinct spe- 
cies of this tribe. As most parts of the oeconomy of in- 
sects have not been in every respect understood, and al- 
though now known in some insects, yet cannot be observed 
in the bee, but which accord with many circumstances attend- 
ing this insect, therefore such must be brought into the pre- 
sent history of the bee, to render it more complete. I shall 
not be minute in the anatomy of this animal, as that would be 
too tedious and uninteresting. When we talk of the oecono- 
my of the colony, such as the secreting wax, making combs, 
collecting farina, honey, feeding the maggots, covering in the 
chrysalis, and the honey, stinging, &c. ; it is the labouring 
bees that are meant. In pursuing any subject, most things 
come to light as it were by accident ; that is, many things arise 
out of investigation that were not at first conceived, and even 
