t1Z NATURAL HISTORY. 
being honey. With regard to the honey, it is but lately taken notic€ 
of, that there are veffels in flowers full of a fweet fluid, to which authors 
have given the name of neétarinm, and it is to thefe that the Bees reforts 
to gather the liquor, which afterwards becomes honey. ‘T'o this pute 
pofe, they make ufe of their trunks, and with thefe the Bees condut 
the fluid to their mouths, caufing it to run along the upper part 0 
their trunks. The powder of the ftamina, is not the only nouvrifhment 
of Bees, for it is very well known, they do not make honey on purpof 
for us. The fweet fluid falls from the oefophagus or gullet, into thé 
firft ftomach, which while it is filled with honey, is in fhape like an ob- 
long bladder. Children that live in country places; are well acquaint 
ed with this bladder; and they even feek for it in the bodies of the Beesy 
and more efpecially in thofe of humble Bees, to fuck out the honey> 
When a Bee has fufficiently filled her firft flomach it returns back t0 
the hive, where it throws up the honey into a cell. There is reafon t? 
believe, that the honey does not return out of the body unchanged 
becaufe the firft ftomach is capable of contraétion, in the fame mannet 
as that of ruminating animals. It often happens, that the Bee, inttead 
of flying back to the hive, goes back to the places where the other Bees 
are bufy in their feveral employments, and offers them honey, perhaps — 
to hinder them from leaving off their work; to go in fearch of food: 
Some of the honey combs are always left open for common ufe, but 
many others are ftopped up, till there is a neceflity of opening them# 
each of thefe are covered carefully with wax, fo clofe, that the covers — 
feem to be made at the fame time. This practice tends to preferve thé 
honey in the fame degree of fluidity, as they defign it fhould have. _ 
The ancients were of opinion, that the generation of Bees, was oc 
cafioned by putrified fubftances, and not in a manner analogous to that 
of other animals. Some who have built their faith too much on what 
Virgil has faid in the fourth book of his Georgics, in the fable of th 
thepherd drifleus ; and have taken a bull of two years old, have {top” 
ped up his noftrils, and afterwards killed him, and fo left him to putrify 
But this procedure was fo far from producing {warms of Bees, thaf 
they only met with thoufands of maggots, and a dreadful ftench: 
Others have publifhed variety of fictitious ftories, to acquaint the worl 
in what manner thefe iniects generated. 
‘During the greater part of the year, there is but one female in every, 
hive, which may readily be diftinguithed from other Bees, by the fhap@ 
of her body; but it is fomewhat difficult to find her out. The males 
who may be feen by hundreds, fpend almoft their whole lives in com” 
pany with the female. For this reafon, they are feldom out of the hiv 
but they lie idle therein, doing nothing at all, but feeding upon thé 
honey, which the working Bees have gathered. Neverthelefs they até 
not ufelefs, for though they do not work, they are abfolutely neceflary 
for the produétion of other Bees. : 
’ The Bee, called the Queen, is moft prodigioufly fertile, for fhe alon® 
produces all the reft of the Bees in the fame hive. Infomuch that 
there is no conneéion that can be greater, than between the reit of p 
Bees and her. It is certain, that all the Bees leave off working, 2°. 
‘take no farther care of futurity, after the death of the queen. She a! 
full of a prodigious number of eggs; and it is for the fake of theler 
that the Bees fet themfelves to work. Befides, if any other female Pa 
