we may learn from the verses of Euenus, prettily translated by Merivale. * "Attic maiden, honey-fed, Chirping warbler, bear'st away "Tis not fair, indeed 'tis wrong, That the ceaseless warbler should Die by mouth of ceaseless tongue." Many are the fables and stories of the the bees, and the love he has for honey. bear and One, not so well known, we extract from Butler. The conteur is one Demetrius, a Muscovite ambassador sent to Rome. "A neighbour of mine," saith he, "searching in the woods for honey, slipped down into a great hollow tree; and there sunk into a lake of honey up to the breast: where-when he had stuck fast two days, calling and crying out in vain for help (because nobody in the mean while came nigh that solitary place)—at length when he was out of all hope of * So stated by Cotton; but on reference to the elegant volume of 'Bland's Collections from the Greek Anthology,' the last and best edition of 1833, we find a different version assigned to Mr. Merivale. Moreover, the prey of the swallow is there made the cicada, and not the bee. We infinitely prefer the translation given in My Bee-book,' which yet falls so short of the epigrammatic turn of the original, that we can only do justice to Euenus by adding the Greek : *Ατθι κόρα μελίθρεπτε, λάλον λάλος ἁρπάξασα, Οὐχὶ τάχος ρίψεις; οὐ γὰρ θέμις οὐδὲ δίκαιον life, he was strangely delivered by the means of a great bear, which, coming thither about the same business that he did, and smelling the honey (stirred with his striving), clambered up to the top of the tree, and thence began to let himself down backward into it. The man bethinking himself, and knowing that the worst was but death (which in that place he was sure off), beclipt the bear fast with both his hands about the loins, and withal made an outcry as loud as he could. The bear, being thus suddenly affrighted (what with the handling and what with the noise), made up again with all speed possible: the man held, and the bear pulled until with main force he had drawn Dun out of the mire; and then, being let go, away he trots, more afeard than hurt, leaving the smeared swain in a joyful fear."-Butler, p. 115. The bear, from his love of honey, acts as a pointer to the bee-hunters of the North, who note the hollow trees which he frequents and rubs against, knowing thereby that they contain honey. "The bears," said a bee-hunter to Washington Irving, "is the knowingest varmint for finding out a bee-tree in the world. They'll gnaw for days together at the trunk till they make a hole big enough to get in their paws, and then they'll haul out the honey, bees and all." Wasps are sad depredators upon bees, and require to be guarded against. The large mother-wasp, which is often observed quite early in the spring, and which common people call a hornet, should always be destroyed, as it is the parent of a whole swarm. In many places the gardeners will give sixpence a-piece for their destruction, and bee-masters should not refuse at least an equal amount of head-money. BEES AND BEARS-WASPS. 37 These brazen-mailed invaders take good care never to attack any but a weak hive: here they very soon make themselves at home, and walk in and out in the most cool, amusing manner possible. As an instance of the extent to which their intrusion may be carried, there was sent to the Entomological Society, in July last, a very complete wasps'-nest, found in the interior of a bee-hive, the lawful inhabitants of which had been put to flight by the burglars. "But not any one of these" (we quote from the old fellow of Magdalen, from whom so many have borrowed without acknowledgment), "nor all the rest together, do half so much harm to the Bees as the Bees." And here again they too truly represent human nature. As riches increase, they set their hearts the more upon them. The stronger the stock is, the more likely are they to turn invaders, and of course they fix upon the weakest and most resistless of their brethren as the subjects of their attack. Then comes the tug of war; and a terrible struggle it is. Here is an extract from Mr. Cotton's notebook: "I was sitting quietly in the even of a fine day, when my sister came puffing into the room, Oh! Willy, make haste and come into the garden, the bees are swarming!' • Nonsense,' I said; they cannot be swarming; it is August, and four o'clock in the even.' Nevertheless I was bound, as a loving brother, to see what grounds my wise sister had for her assertion. I got up, went to the window, and, although I was at least 400 yards from my bees, the air seemed full of them. I rushed out to the garden; the first sight of my hive made me think my sister was right. On looking more narrowly, I perceived that the bees were hurrying in, instead of swarming out; and on peeping about, I saw lying on the ground the "defuncta corpora vitâ Magnanimum heroum.' They all had died fighting, as the play-book says, pro hares et foxes. My thoughts then turned to my other stock, which was about a quarter of a mile off. I ran to it as fast as I could hardly had I arrived there, when an advanced body of the robber regiment followed me; they soon thickened; I tried every means I could think of to disperse them, but in vain: I threw dust into the air among the thickest; and read them the passage in Virgil, which makes the throwing of the dust in the air equivalent to the Bees' Riot Act: 'Hi motus animorum atque hæc certamina tanta Pulveris exigui jactu compressa quiescent.'"-p. 319. But all in vain. We know how often this same experiment has failed, though nothing can be more true than the rest of Virgil's description of the Battle of the Bees; but dust is certainly efficacious in causing them speedily to settle when they are swarming, whether it is that the dust annoys them, or that they mistake it for hail or rain. There is yet one greater enemy than all, and that is Man. And this leads us to consider the different systems of management and harvesting which he has adopted; and some consolation it is that, various as may be the plans proposed, there is only one exception, among the many bee-books we have lately read, to the heartily expressed wish that the murderous system of stifling the bees may be wholly condemned VARIETY OF HIVES. 39 and abolished. Indeed, if Mr. Cotton's statement be correct, England shares with the valley of Chamouni the exclusive infamy of destroying the servants whose toil has been so serviceable. Cobbett says it is whimsical to save the bees, if you take the honey; but, on the other hand, to sacrifice them for the sake of it, is killing the goose for her golden eggs. A middle line is the safest; take a part. First, be sure that you leave enough to carry a stock fairly through the winter-say 30 lbs., hive and all-and the surplus is rightly your own, for the hives and the flowers you have found them, and the trouble and time you have bestowed. To devise such To devise such a method has engaged the attention of English bee-masters for many generations back; and to eke out the hive by a temporary chamber, which may be removed at pleasure, has been the plan most commonly proposed. Dr. Bevan (pp. 115-120) gives a detailed account of the different schemes, to which we refer our readers curious in such matters. There can be but three ways of adding to a hive-first, at the top, by extra boxes, small hives, caps, or bell-glasses, which may be called generally the storifying system (we use the bee-man's vocabulary as we find it); secondly, at the side, by box, &c., called the collateral system; and thirdly, by inserting additional room at the bottom, called nadiring. To enter into all the advantages and disadvantages of these plans would be to write a volume; we must therefore content ourselves with Dr. Bevan's general rule, which we think experience fully bears out, that old stocks |