the

queen wherever he wished them to settle: the moment a few of them discovered her, they gave notice to the rest, and all presently collected round her, and seemed so happy in the recovery of their beloved sovereign, that they would remain, for some time, perfectly quiet, on the spot where they found her.

Bees have many enemies, both amongst insects and animals. The fox is a dangerous enemy in winter, as his strength enables him soon to get an entrance into the hive, when he presently devours the honey. Mice, bats, and birds, are equally destructive; and toads and frogs will often place themselves at the opening of the hive, and seize the bees as they pass. Even spiders destroy many bees, by spreading their webs near the hive. Another

kind of insect is so artful, as to con

ceal itself in the corolla of flowers, and, when a bee comes to sip the nectareous juice of the flower, this insect darts out of its hiding place, and devours the poor unsuspecting bee. Bees are also destroyed by their own quarrels: for, during a long winter, should the inhabitants of one hive fall short of provisions, they will leave home, and attack another hive. Sometimes it happens, that a queen is killed in this contest, and then both swarms unite under the sovereign queen, and enter the hive together, like good friends."—" Mamma!" interrupted Lucy, "is that large beautiful bee, we have often observed in the fields, and which I have heard boys call a bumble-bee, a queen-bee?"" No, my dear, that is another species. The bee I have been describing is called the

domestic bee, because it lives near man, and is indebted to him for its habitation and provision in winter, when there are no flowers to furnish them. It is true we should not need to supply them with winterfood, did we not plunder their own store. All insects, as well as animals, which do not endure well the winter's cold, are endowed by Nature with a sufficient instinct to lay up for themselves provisions enough to serve them from autumn until the succeeding spring. The bee you have heard called the bumble-bee, is properly the humble or humming-bee, so called from its constant humming noise. It forms one of the wild tribes; and, of these wild tribes, some are highly curious. They are distinguished by their manners, the formation of their nests, and many other particulars.

Some are called leaf-cutters, from their curious manner of cutting the leaves of trees, chiefly the rose-tree, into pieces of an exact size, to form little cells, in which to deposit their eggs. These bees are very injurious to large trees; for they work holes in the solid timber in a surprising manuer, sometimes a foot deep. Within the little leaves of leaves, the bee deposits a sufficient quantity of honey, to supply the future young with subsistence, until it is able to seek food for itself. There are other kinds which form similar cavities in the earth, for cells for their young. Some of these bees line their cells with fine down; others, with the beautiful leaves of the rose, whence they obtain the appellation of tapestry-bees. Another species are called mason-bees, from their building their nests in a very

extraordinary manner, in a warm sheltered corner of a house-wall, generally under the projection of the roof, which serves as a covering for When this active insect

the nest.

has found a suitable place for her nest, she begins by looking out for sand proper for her building: this sand she picks up grain by grain, cementing it into a little ball with saliva; then, taking this little ball in her mouth, she transports it to the place she has fixed upon for her nest, and there forms it into cells, about the size, and nearly the shape, of a thimble. When each cell is finished, the-little mason deposits in it a store of farina, mixed with honey, for the sustenance of the future bee. When all the cells are finished, and the eggs laid in each, the bee proceeds to close up all the empty spaces between the cells, and then covers the whole with coarser grains