30 
THE HONEY-BEE. 
availed ourselves of the information dispersed through- 
out a variety of publications, both ancient and mo- 
dern,* with such additions of our own, as have been 
acquired by the observation of Bees for a period of 
thirty years. Our prescribed limits have restricted 
us, in a great degree, to mere matters of fact, and 
prevented us often from illustrating our subject, as 
we might have done with advantage, by reference to 
the habits and instincts of other of the insect tribes. 
The same cause has operated as a bar to our indulg- 
ing so frequently as our inclination would have led 
us, in those reflections which the wonders in animal 
economy are so well fitted to excite, and which lead 
so irresistibly to the conclusion that there is a Wise 
and Designing Cause. We trust, however, that the 
facts detailed, will, of themselves, lead the mind of 
the intelligent reader to such reflections, and thus 
become the source of a purer gratification than would 
have been derived from the suggestions of others. 
* We have to acknowledge our special obligations to the 
Treatises of M. Feburier of Paris, and of Dr. Bevan of South 
Wales, Author of “ The Honey-Bee.” 
*,* Some of our readers may be inclined to question the 
propriety of having placed the Queen-bee upon flowers, on 
which she is never seen, but it has, throughout our plates, 
been our endeavour to make them pictorial as well as scienti- 
fically correct, the more necessary in a volume such as the 
present, where our materials are rather scanty, a loss, however, 
fully compensated by the extraordinary interest in the subject 
itself. 
