NATURAL HISTORY. | : 105 
feds are fo very numerous, that their nefts are ftuck up in this manner, 
Carce two feet afunder, and the inhabitants are in continual apprehen- 
lion from their accidental refentment. It fometimes happens, that no 
Precautions can prevent their attacks, and the pains of their fling is 
almof infupportable. Thofe who have felt it think it more terrible 
than even that of a fcorpion ; the whole vifage fwells, and the features 
are fo disfigured, that a perfon is fcarcely known by his molt intimate 
@cquaintance. 
OR a Pe Vil: 
4 MORE PARTICULAR ACCOUNT OF BEES, AND THE PRENCH METHOD OF 
MANAGING THEM. 
EES being the moft profitable infects yet known, except filk 
Worms; the reader will not be difpleafed to have a more particu- 
lar account of them, and their nanagement, by way cf fupplement to 
What has been faid before. And if any thing be repeated, that has 
en mentioned before, it will be only done to render this account more 
Omplete and uniform. 
ees in ancient times were all wild, and they inhabited the vaft fo- 
Tells of Poland, Raffa, and other northern countries, lodging in hol- 
Ow trees, holes in the rocks, and in the gound. ‘They are infects of 
8 wonderful kind, and which naturaliits have treated of in different 
ges ; infomuch that fome pretend there have been philofophers, who 
fent the greateft part of their time, in ftudying their nature. How- 
Ver in this age, they are better known by much than formerly ; Swam- 
™erdam in particular, has made curious refearches into their nature,.as 
Well as Maraldi, and Reaumur, two ingenious members of the royal , 
®cademy of feiences. cop 
i: We now are very certain, that in every hive, there are three diftin& 
‘Inds of Bees; the moft numerous of which are the commion forty 
Whofe bufinefg it is to gather the honey and wax. Thefe may be cal- 
€d the labouring Bees, and according-to the moft cusious obfervers, 
Ney are neither male nor female. Another fort are the drones, and 
thefe are males. Of’ the third fort, there is generally but one, which 
“as conrmonly called the king, but ts now known to be the queen, for 
is a female, and is always the mother of a numerous poiterity. 
_ With regard to the external parts of the common bees, the moft re- 
[a rkable ‘are the head, the corflet or brealt, and the body or belly. 
N the head there are the eyes, placed on each fide, and two feelers; _ 
OMpofed of feveral jointss and two teeth or pinchers, and the trunk 
t fnout, which is a kind of tongue, enclofed in two cafes, and of a 
. tance réfembling that of a horn, or feales, with a large mouth, 
3 ned at the root of the tongue. The corflet is joined to the head by 
ptort neck, and on it there are four wings above, and fix legs or fect 
tlow, of which the two hindermoft are longer than‘the reft, and ex- 
*ernally in the middley there is a hollownels, in the thape of a fpoon, 
: : o : bordered 
