THE COTTAGE GARDENER AND COUNTRY GENTLEMAN, February 28, 1860. 
341 
conducted between swindlers at Fulham and their victim near 
Nottingham: we have taken some trouble to trace those com¬ 
mitting the fraud, and find that there are at Fulham parties of 
the name assumed, and residing in the house named in the letters 
addressed to poultry owners. If those who have sent fowls to 
them will instruct the police, and ascertain from the railway 
porters to whom the fowls were delivered, we have reason to 
believe the law will grapple effectively with the villains. 
However, run no risk of being obliged to have recourse to the 
law; and, to avoid such a risk, whether an offer for poultry 
comes from Manchester, or Fulham, or elsewhere—unless you 
know the writer, Never part with your fowls before you 
RECEIVE PAYMENT FOR THEM. 
COCKS’ EGGS, AND THE SEX IN EGGS. 
The belief in cocks’ eggs may be classed amongst the large 
number of vulgar errors. However, they are very small eggs, 
but laid, of course, by hens. I have seen several, and have one 
now about the size of a sparrow’s egg, the shell of which is of an 
unusual thickness. It seems difficult to explain the cause of 
liens laying such puny eggs ; for they do so when in good health, 
and at various times during their usual period of laying. 
It cannot be expected that such eggs are impregnated; but if 
they were it would be difficult to distinguish the “ air circles,” 
or fruitful specks, in them through their thick shells. 
Some keepers of fowls profess to know the sex in eggs by care¬ 
fully observing those specks. A friend of mine, who has had 
long experience in fowls, says that he can have pullets or cocks 
exactly as he selects the eggs. Those which produce cocks have 
the fruitful specks in the crown of the eggs; but those which 
bring pullets have them on the side of the crown. This agrees 
in part with “ D. D.’s ” statement at page 264, that from a 
selection of “ thirteen eggs, having the air circles on the side, and 
not on the crown of the egg,” he obtained twelve pullets. I 
should notice that the speck is always at the thick end of an 
egg, and, except a dark one like that of a Cochin-China, is readily 
seen by holding this up to the light, with the shade of the other 
hand over it. Eggs having no visible specks are almost sure to 
be addled or rotten in the nest after the usual time of incuba¬ 
tion.—J. Wighton. 
HONEY HARVEST OF 1859. 
The following is an account of my success in bee-keeping last 
year, the district being only a moderately good one : — 
Stocks in the spring . 17 
Swarms (the first May 27th) . 7 
Casts (all returned) . 4 
Hives taken up the last week in July. 8 
Produce of apiary :— lbs. ozs. 
Glasses and boxes. 103 10 
Drained honey . 123 3 
Total. 226 13 
Stocks remaining, which are all well supplied . 16 
First prizes were awarded at two Horticultural Shows for 
glasses exhibited. 
Perhaps this account may encourage some of your apiarian 
readers, for I have kept bees for twelve years, but only last year 
and the previous one with any amount of success.—A North¬ 
amptonshire (N.) Bee-keeper. 
THE LATE DR. BEVAN, THE APIARIAN. 
It is with much regret, which will be shared by a wide circle 
of friends and acquaintances, not to speak of the thousands to 
whom bee-keeping is a pastime or a profit, that we announce the 
death, on January 31sr, at his residence near this city, of Dr. 
Edward Bevan, the venerable author of that well-known work 
“ The Honey Bee.” The learned Doctor had reached the ripe 
age of ninety, when the burden of years, without any disease, at 
length laid him low. 
Dr. Bevan was born in London , 1 * on the 8th July, 1770. 
Being early left fatherless, he was removed in his infancy to the 
house of Mr. Powles, his maternal grandfather, in this city; and 
* It was erroneously stated in our Number 593 that he was born at 
Hereford.—Ens. C. G. 
where, under the kind and sedulous care of his excellent and 
talented mother, he spent his childhood until his removal to the 
grammar-school of Wotton-under-Edge, which he entered at the 
early age of eight years. After remaining in that school for four 
years, ho returned to Hereford, and was placed by his grand¬ 
father at the College School. There he remained until he was 
about to commence his professional studies. His own mind was 
disposed towards the Church, but by the advice of his uncle, 
Mr. Powle, surgeon, of Wotton, who had adopted him, he 
devoted his attention to medicine. In after years he admitted • 
that the choice ( made for him had been a judicious one, the 
medical profession affording him scope for the spirit of free 
inquiry which characterised him. In his professional studies 
under Abernethy and others, he was known as “ the indefati¬ 
gable”—a complimentary soubriquet which he well deserved. 
At Mortlake, Surrey, he became an assistant to Dr. John 
Clarke; and after five years so spent commenced practice on his 
own account at Stoke-upon-Trent, from which place he sub¬ 
sequently removed to Congleton, Cheshire. After twelve years’ 
practice in that town, his health beginning to give "way, Dr. Bevan 
was induced by his friends to remove to a more limited ’sphere 
of usefulness. He soon afterwards settled upon a small estate 
which he had purchased at Bridstow, near Ross, in this county. 
It was soon after his settling at Bridstow that his mind was 
directed to the study of the habits of bees, which ultimately 
issued in his producing the standard book on apiarian pursuits. 
To quote from a memoir of the learned Doctor, which appeared 
in the “ Naturalist ” some years ago :— 
“Incentives were supplied by several eminent apiarians and 
naturalists with whom he became acquainted, namely the Rev. 
Richard Walond, Thomas Andrew Knight, Esq., Robert Gold¬ 
ing, Esq., and the Rev. Dr. Dunbar.. With the latter gentleman 
and several others he maintained a regular correspondence for 
years, and a comparison of experimental results; and to Mr. 
Walond he dedicated his first edition of the ‘Honey Bee.’ 
This work was published in the year 1827, was well received, 
and established the author’s reputation as a scientific apiarian. 
His attention to the honied race has known no abatement since, 
and lias led to the accumulation of a body of valuable information, 
which has recently been given to the world in a second edition 
of the ‘Honey Bee.’ This work has obtained the meed of 
approbation from almost every quarter, being regarded as ‘the 
most perfect and philosophical ’ that we have upon the subject. 
It is dedicated to Her Majesty, in a style peculiarly neat and 
appropriate; and we cannot withhold from our readers the 
terms in which it is spoken of by one of its reviewers :—‘ The 
dedication is a singularly felicitous production, affords a fair 
sample of the author’s literary qualifications for his task, and as 
it is further recommended by its brevity, we make no apology 
for quoting it.’ Having presented his readers with a transcript 
of it, the reviewer concludes thus:—‘ In the collection of his 
materials—materials of the most curious and interesting character 
—Dr. Bevan has laboured with a degree of industry that would 
do credit to the little insect subjects of his book.’ This work, 
with the exception of an occasional contribution to the periodical 
press, is all that the Doctor has ever published ; but in the year 
1822 he assisted his friend, the late Samuel Parlies, Esq., in a 
revision of the third edition of his ‘Rudiments of Chemistry.’ 
“ In 1833 he joined that enlightened band of naturalists by 
whom the Entomological Society was established, entering it as 
an original member; but his distance from London has pre¬ 
vented his attendance on more than one of its sittings. 
“His personal expenditure was in all respects moderate, his 
diet of the simplest kind, his hours early, still rising at six; and, 
like his preceptor, Abernethy, he for many years regularly took 
a siesta after dinner. This was at all times his sovereign res¬ 
torative. After the gi’eatest fatigues of his laborious profession, 
to stretch his weary limbs on the carpet, for ten or fifteen 
minutes, at the feet of his wife, with her footstool for his pillow, 
would enable him to resume his toils far better than any internal 
cordial; and to the last he found his afternoon nap as refresh¬ 
ing as his night’s repose, and a necessary stimulant to his invari¬ 
able practice of reading aloud for a couple of hours, to his 
family, after their afternoon coffee. The time which he devoted 
to study, as being the freest from interruption, was from six to 
eight in the morning, and an hour or two after he retired for the 
night; that between breakfast and dinner was chiefly appropriated 
to his extensive correspondence, his garden, and the fields. 
“Although playful, and even jocund, amongst his intimate 
friends, he was reserved towards strangers, and was never able to 
