THE COTTAGE GARDENER. 
400 
i September 20.J 
and throat of a blnisli black, reflecting a metallic green; 
covering of the wings and cloak of a bluish grey, shaded 
with white. The basis of each feather a deeper colour, and 
a slight white edge. The flight of a blackish grey, striped 
with light grey; back inclined to white; the rump and tail 
slate-colour, this last terminating in a black bar ; eye 
pearled. This superb bird generally produces well. 
TWELFTH RACE. 
Looking-Glass Pigeon (Columba specularis). —It is in¬ 
conceivable, that, although so many authors have written on 
pigeons, none have noticed this race, which is very remark¬ 
able for the beautiful colours of its plumage. This cannot 
be because they have never been acquainted with it; for, 
[ although it is not very common, all the amateurs know it, 
and several of them possess some varieties of it. It cannot 
| be because they do not consider it a pure race; for these 
j pigeons are positively what they call a pure race, since they 
cannot be crossed with any other variety, however close it 
may appear, without being for ever lost. Be this as it may, 
these birds have the general characters of the Mixture 
pigeons, and can scarcely be recognised from them, but by 
the striking beauty of their plumage. They never have any 
filament round the eyes, and their iris is generally yellow. 
Red Looking-Glass Pigeon (Columba specularis rubra). 
j —It is of a blood-red colour, crossed, about eight inches 
i from the end of the quill feathers of the wings and tail, by 
i a greyish-white stripe, about half-an-inch wide. The red 
on the end of these feathers is rather more clear than the 
rest of the body. It has a cock’s eye, that is to say, a yellow 
1 iris. This charming variety, of middle size, is very pro¬ 
ductive, and deserves, under all circumstances, the attention 
of the amateurs. 
Yellow Looking-glass Pigeon (Columba specularis lutea). 
—This pretty bird only differs from the preceding in the 
points of its plumage, which is yellow; it is also speckled 
in the same manner on the large quill feathers of the wings 
; and tail. It has the same fecundity. 
Smallest Looking-glass Pigeon (Columba specularis 
minima). —Resembles the preceding, but is much smaller, 
being very near the size of the stock-dove. I his charming 
bird is very productive. 
DRIVING BEES. 
With the experience of one season, and the works of 
Huber, Payne, Huish, and Taylor, I herewith send you my 
plan of driving bees, which has succeeded in every instance. 
I use Payne’s Improved Cottage Llive, fitted to a two-inch 
wood-lioop at the bottom, to clear the hive from the floor¬ 
board, a four-inch entrance, quarter-of-an-inch in height, 
perforated zinc slide to the same to close the hive, or admit 
one, two, or twenty bees at pleasure ; strong separate stands 
and loose floor boards, the former arranged to prevent mice 
from entering the hive; the latter, eighteen inches square, 
one-and-a-balf-inch thick, the edges chamfered from the 
circle the bottom of the hive occupies, with a sound milk-pan 
for a cover, all well-painted—cracks and holes well-stopped, 
the upper three bands and roof of the hive not painted. 
I procured my stocks, last spring, in the old Cottage Hive, 
and allowed them to swarm. I have now driven the stocks 
from the old hives and joined them with second swarms, 
thus:—At night I stopped the entrance of No. 1 hive; on 
the following day, at 10, a. m., I removed it, with floor-board, - 
to a quiet spot in my garden, and turned it up, the floor-board 
still remaining on : I then placed an empty hive, No. 2, on j 
what I term a connecting board, which is a floor-board with j 
a twelve-inch circular hole in the centre. Place the edge of 
such board against the edge of the floor-board, and gently 
push the latter off the hive, rap the sides of the hive about, 
ten minutes, and her majesty and subjects will ascend the 
empty hive, No. 2; which remove to the stand on which No. 1 
formerly stood; clear the old hive of honey, Ac., and the few 
remaining bees will return to their companions in their 
temporary habitation. At night, stop the entrance to No. 3 
hive (the one selected to join the bees now in No. 2), remove , 
it with stand to a distance, to allow No. 2 and floor-board to | 
take its place; remove the straw covering, and place No. 3 j 
on the top of No. 2; in the morning open the entrance to 
No. 3; the bees will be joined and work well together:— 
one of the queens will be deposed. 
In the evening, place No. 3 on its original stand in the 
usual place, and all will go on well. I have adopted this plan, I 
and scarcely a bee have I destroyed ; you do not require even j 
the protection of gloves. I have now done away with the 
old hive and substituted Taylor’s Double Bar Hive, Payne’s | 
Improved Cottage Hive, and an Invented Hive. It is J. | 
H. Payne, Esq., Bury St. Edmunds, whom I have to thank 
for so plainly elucidating the humane management in your 
valuable work, which fixed my mind to the management of the 
industrious bee, and many hours’ gratification have I ex¬ 
perienced, which I hope to turn to good account with the 
numerous cottage labourers in this district, who commit the 
bees to the fumes of sulphur, after their toil for their winter ! 
store. Rosea. 
ENGLISH CAGE BIRDS. 
(Continued from paye 342, vol. v.) 
THE WILLOW WABBLES. 
Insessores Dentirostres. Sylviade Insecttvora. 
Sylvia Trochilus; Motacilla Trochilus; Regulus Trochilus; 
Curruca Trochilus. Yellow Warbler; Yellow Wren; Wil¬ 
low Wren; Nettle Creeper; Bank Linnet. 
This is a very active and elegant little bird, arriving here 
rather earlier than the Wood Warbler, and about the same 
time as the Black Cap; it is much more numerous than the 
Wood Warbler or Chiff Chaff, and is distinguished from the 
former by a darker olive-tinted plumage, the streak over 
the eye less defined, and by the under portion of the body 
being tinged with yellow; and from the latter by its pale 
brown legs, those of the Chiff Chaff being dark brown or 
nearly black. The Willow Warbler is found frequenting 
woods, plantations, shrubberies, gardens, Ac., flying from 
tree to tree in search of its insect food, upon which it en¬ 
tirely subsists, as it does not feed either on fruit or berries, 
but flies of every description, aphides, small caterpillars, 
and maggots, in fact almost every small insect that comes 
in its path. Its song is rather pretty and plaintive, and is 
delivered either from the topmost branch of a tree, or as it 
is hopping from branch to branch, and also on the wing. 
Its nest, like the former, is of a rounded or oval form, built 
on the ground, generally in the coarse grass on the bank, 
and is composed externally of moss and grass, having a 
small hole on one side, the nest being domed over, and is 
lined with feathers. They are readily kept in captivity, 
either from the wild state or reared from the nest; if from 
the wild state, they should be fed on living insects for some 
